Sunday, April 6, 2025

Summer 3rd Quarter Journal 2006 July-September

 

JULY

1 July 2006 Saturday

No entry

 

2 July 2006 Sunday

It’s July all ready! Even the 2nd! Went to the movies today with Larry Smith and saw The Return of Superman or is it Superman Returns. Either way Brandon Routh is hot! I really enjoyed it much more then I expected to because of what critics wrote.  Its a fun Summer movie. Go see it.  After the movie we went to the Training Table.  I really am not that impressed with the Training table but that is where Larry wanted to eat so why not?  Because we went to the one on 4th South and 800 East afterwards I asked him if he wanted to see Gilgal Gardens. He had never been there and its really one of those places that is extremely quirky and that you would only find in Utah. I've been on the computer so much lately that I am getting computer fatigue.  I just wanted to get some of my Gay chronology files in order so they would be of use to someone if I croaked.  I sent in my DNA sample also to this Genealogy databank to put my Williams DNA on file to see if I can tract down my Murky Colonial Williams Clan.  Britton Williams who was a South Carolina state assemblyman and a Revolutionary War militia man is as far back as I have a proven linage.  He was caught by the British after a skirmish and was hung as a traitor in 1781.  So my great grandfather gave his life for the birth of this country and I will be damned if I will let the likes of George Bush and his NeoCon Aristocracy shit all over the Constitution. Haven't heard from anyone lately so no gossip to report.

 

3 July 2006 Monday

No entry

 

4 July 2006 Tuesday Independence Day

Happy 4th of July. Mike and i took the dogs for a ride this morning and went to see Chuck Whyte. Hadn't been to his house since he had it remodeled with new carpets, and new furniture. It looked great.  He seemed to be enjoying his new status with the Royal Court as the gracious loser. I was sick to my stomach much of last night from eating what turned out to be rancid microwave popcorn.  Check the dates!  So I took a nap in the afternoon until the wind kicked up and a storm blew through dropping the temperature about 30 degrees. It even showered a little. In the evening went next door to eat a BBQ with the Giles. Since the temperature dropped so radically we ended eating inside the house. I had made all these hot weather dishes, pasta salad, English Pea Salad, Jello Salad because I thought it was going to be in the 90's but Mother nature changed her mind. The white vinyl fence across from the Giles was tagged last night with blue spray paint by some Mexican gang last night.  Wonderful sight to see in the neighborhood. What a bunch of losers to have to sneak around at night with spray paint to make a statement. Viva La Raza my ass.

 

5 July 2006 Wednesday

No entry

 

6 July, 2006 Thursday

I wrote Dan Fahndrich: Hi Dan, I am meeting with the YMCA to reserve Camp Rogers for next summer. Are you interested in being on a BS Organizational Committee? Ben

 

7 July 2006 Friday

No entry

 

8 July 2006 Saturday

The days keep slogging along. Past two days I have been at school cleaning out my old room and moving into the new room. However it’s so discouraging because the cupboards in the new room are so jammed packed with crap that I have to clean them out first before I can even set up stuff.  Last year I had to clean a pack rat's room and now I am doing it again. It’s frustrating and extremely tiresome especially when these rooms have no air conditioning and I am working in 85 degree plus rooms.  I lose water by the buckets.  But it’s better to do it now then later.   Wednesday I went to the YMCA to talk to someone about Camp Rogers but no one will be there to talk with until this Monday. Chad Keller and Dan Fahndrich have agreed to be on the Beyond Stonewall Committee and Kevin Hillman is considering it. I haven't heard from Michael Aaron yet but I am sure he is busy. Watched TransAmerica and Felicity Hoffman was excellent and the movie was pretty good.  Also watched Junebug, which was just so so and Harry and Max which was kind of dumb. Thursday I had to take my oldest dog Priscilla to the vet because she had an infection in her anal gland. I guess as dogs get older they can become susceptible to that kind of thing.  So I have her on anti-biotic. Other than that, and cleaning up after my puppies’ life, I’m just kind of in a Summer Daze.

Actress June Allyson, the sunny, cracked-voiced "perfect wife" of James Stewart, Van Johnson and other movie heroes, died on July 8. She was 88. Allyson died at her home in Ojai, Calif., with her husband of nearly 30 years, David Ashrow, at her side. She died of pulmonary respiratory failure and acute bronchitis after a long illness

 

9 July 2006-12 July 2006

No entries

 

13 July 2006 Thursday

Hot middle days of Summer. The Fire Dragon Moon.  Yesterday spent some time with Chad Keller. We went out to lunch at the Jade Cafe on 9th South. I didn't think it was as good as it used to be but that was years ago. Anyway Chad and I had a productive meeting about Beyond Stonewall and that was the whole point of getting together.  We also dropped by Michael Aarons for a brief visit and then I took Chad up to the U of U hospital to pick up a prescription for him so we were out running errands.  Michael said the QSL should be out tomorrow. Chad was in a tizzy about Rhett Barney's new column he his writing for the Pillar. Today I got a certificate in the mail from the Praxis test I took last June. I haven't seen my results; but I got a certificate saying that I scored in the top 15 percentile of everyone who has ever taken the test.  That made me feel good since all elementary teachers in the nation have to take this test.  I had to take the damn thing in the first place so that George Bush would consider me a highly qualified teacher! So I would like to shove it up his ass, the so called leader of the free world. I went to the YMCA's office early this morning and signed a contract and put down a $550 deposit to hold Camp Rogers for August 3, 4, and 5 of 2007 so I guess I am really committed to making a go of this again. I am kind of excited about it. Israel is striking at radical Muslim militant bases in Lebanon and the situation is very intense. For sure gasoline prices will go up before Armageddon commences. LOL. Watched two German films with Michael the other day. One was called "Coming Out" which was the only Gay movie ever filmed in East Germany and premiered when the Berlin Wall was taken down in 1989.  The other was called Colonel Redl which was about the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and a homosexual military Lt. Colonel who gave state secrets to the Russians.  Both movies were interesting but nothing I would want to see again unlike "Downfall" the German movie about the collapse of the Third Reich.

            Comedian-actor Red Buttons,, the carrot-topped burlesque comedian who became a top star in early television and then in a dramatic role won the 1957 Oscar as supporting actor in "Sayonara," died on July 13. He was 87. Buttons died of vascular disease at his home in the Century City area of Los Angele

 

14 July 2006 Friday

Mark Swonson wrote: How about The Other Place at 6pm unless you have another restaurant you would rather go to. I wrote Sounds great 6 pm The Other Place- see you then.

 

15 July 2006  Saturday

Hottest day of the year so far. Depending where you were in the valley it was between 102 and 105 degrees.  Mike and I went out to breakfast at Jim's Restaurant which is always great and a deal before buying more doggie biscuits at Petco. I took Daisy and Chaz in yesterday to the vet for their last puppy shots and  rabies so they can get groomed finally next week. They have got to be hot in their long shaggy coats.  We also took our neighbors to the airport. They on a whim decided to go to the Bahamas. Kim works for Jet Blue so she gets all these great passes. Anyway Mike watched movies all day and I worked on Beyond Stonewall projects. I reconstructed the Beyond Stonewall logo on Microsoft Paint and then sent out invitation letters inviting people to join the planning committee. I've asked Chad Keller, Ron Hunt, Todd Bennett, Michael Aaron, Mark Thrash, Kevin Hillman, and Dan Fahndrich to serve.  So far only Chad and Dan have gotten back with me and have agreed to be on the committee. Went and picked up a copy of QSL at the Trapp. I think the Metro is kaput. Haven't seen it in awhile.  Keep cool everyone.

 

16 July 2006 Sunday

We are having a heat wave- a not so tropical heat wave- it isn't surprising- the temperatures rising. The shirtless boys can certainly Can Can.  Mike and I decided to take in a early movie so at 10:30 a.m. we went to Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada".  There were maybe 10 people in the theater. It was a hoot seeing Meryl Streep so deliciously autocratic. Afterward we went over to Mark Swonson because he was having computer problems and Mike rebooted it for him.  We all went to lunch at The Other Place and it was good as usual. Mike had a chicken Greek salad that he said was especially good. Mark told us of his dream of moving to Spain and opening a Gay Bar with a friend of his. That would be lovely. I set up a time for our first Beyond Stonewall Meeting on August 13. Dan Fahndrich said he would host it. So far there's Chad Keller, Ron Hunt, Dan Fahndrich, and my self on the committee.

 

17 July 2006-23 July 2006

No entries

 

24 July 2006 Monday Pioneer Day

Well 159 years ago the Mormon hoards descended on this pristine valley, wiped out all animal "predator" (wolves, coyotes, harks, eagles, cougars) and next the humankind (native Americans, mountain men gentiles) , eventually deforested the Oquirrh Mountains, polluted the Jordan River, buried City Creek all because this was the place for religious fanatics that couldn't get along with their neighbors.  It took an occupational American army to keep them under the American Flag.  So let them have their parade today.   Its the war of the Stake Floats anyway. If I wanted to see true beauty queens I'd attend the Royal Court.  How many imitation Brigham Youngs and Styrofoam gilded Moroni’s does one need anyway? Spent a frustrating weekend because I thought I had lost all my data I had stored on one of my external hard drives.  I have two external drives as well as two internal drives to store my nearly 75 gigabytes of information.  The external drive I had been working off of for all summer crashed due to a faulty program in an old Roxie data file burner and I hadn't backed my work up for about a month...so I thought I had lost everything I had done, writings, pictures, music etc. Anyway after spending Saturday and Sunday working on fixing the problem Mike and I managed to get the crashed hard drive up long enough for me to save it on another drive.  I've got hemorrhoids from the hours sitting at the Computer this weekend LOL! If my collection of archival material ever really crashed it would be a disastrous day for Utah's Gay community and I doubt whether anyone is aware of it. I have over 10 years of data collecting in my files, documents, writings, pictures, audio interviews, music besides my own personal work such as genealogy, school work, over 5000 songs in a collection of 100 years of music from Edison wax cylinders to 2006. It’s really quite a collection. It’s been hot hot hot as they say. All last week I worked at school at least 5 hours in the hot 88 degree classroom. I finally put in Styrofoam sheets in the window to block some of the heat and it has dropped the temps to 80. Mom called me to say that my sister's son Kevin Jones was arrested and I think there's a whole lot more to it then she knows. My nephew is 27 years old, lives still at home with his dad having not worked in the past 25 years, while Donna supports the family. My brother in law is a paranoid control freak and thinks he's a vigilante against drug dealers. Evidently my nephew is following in his father's blighted footsteps and this time got arrested for possession of a weapon.  Too bad he's so screwed up because he is really cute or at least was when I last saw him and that was nearly 7 years ago. The pups are growing leaps and bounds. I need to post a picture of them with their hair cut. Haven't really seen or talked to anyone in a while. Tom Folk came over to watch movies with Mike Saturday night. Mike bought a copy of Mommy Dearest. Excerpt from LDS Church Trial of Lorenzo Hunsaker of Honeyville, Utah 1893: Weldon Hunsaker testified that the first time he caught Lorenzo in the act of sucking his penis was about one year ago, he coming to my bed. When I awoke I felt that it was him, but did not see or speak to him or he to me. I turned over on my belly and did not discharge. He did not leave my bed immediately but kept bothering me. The second time occurred about 2 weeks after the first, when he came to my bed as before and got my penis in his mouth. I awoke in the act of discharging.  The third time was in a different room. I was asleep when he came in but awake immediately. He did not accomplish anything, but remained in my bed about one hour, when Florida (his wife) came in search of him with a lamp, but she soon returned leaving him still in my bed, she telling him that he ought to be ashamed of himself. I left the bed and occupied another the rest of the night. The Fourth time occurred near day light so that I could see him. I asked him what good it did him, and he answered that it might keep me from bothering the girls. I replied that it would make me worse rather than better. Got my penis in his mouth, the talk occurred after I awoke. This happened last spring. Have no feelings against him but had some words. Think Peter asked me if Lorenzo had ever sucked my penis and I must have said "yes", as he told me that he had sucked his. This was talked of at Blue Springs last spring. Think I told Ira Neely and Thorn Boothe before I confessed it to Peter. Have been told to stay with my previous statement, if true.

 

25 July 2006-26 July 2006

No entries

 

27 July 2006 Thursday

Micro winds rushed through the valley about 5:30 clocked at 53 mph at the airport then out came a rainbow and it was over.  July has only a week left and then on to August and back to school although it seems I have never left it. All week I've been going in and working in the hot stuffy classroom. I've got it in enough shape now that I am going to take a break from it until school starts back up in about 3 weeks. They found the missing Destiny Norton’s little body in a neighbor's basement.  Israel and Hezbollah are in a slug fest with nearly 400 people killed mostly innocent civilians. The woman who drowned her five children in a bathtub to save them from the devil was found to be insane. It’s such a wicked world and yet Gays are the boogeymen. Haven't heard much lately but then I haven't made myself available.  Been watching all the Thin Man movies with Mike lately.  A change has come over him and he's behaving and treating me well again, like before Saffy died.  When we go places he usually pays, he bought me an external burner for my computer knowing that my old one was giving out, and he said he would take care of the pups while I go down to Vegas next week to visit my Mom before the summer is over.  Don't know what prompted the change, just glad for it. Todd Bennett said he would serve on the Beyond Stonewall Committee but still haven't heard yay or nay from Kevin Hillman and Mark Thrash so I am going to assume by their silence that they aren't interested. Read Jere Keys' complaint that Gay Utah is just ran by white middle-aged men. Oh like women and youth are underserved.  I hope he finds San Francisco more suited for his taste and convictions then. The Destiny Norton case sure exemplified the gap between Mormon and Gentile and wealthy and poor.  KSL news even more or less said to stop judging the Norton family when the majority of their emails said that the Norton's inner circle had something to do with the child being missing because they had tattoos, belonged to Liberty Park's drumming circle, and lived in central city. Wonder what these people will say now that the killer was from an Mormon family of nine children and was not connected with the Nortons except through a backyard.  Thank God he wasn't Gay or they would pin this one on us too since the perception by these sexually repressed wackos is that all Gays are recruiting pedophiles.

 

28 July 2006 Friday

No entry

 

29 July 2006 Saturday

Mike and I watched a fascinating documentary on the 911 disaster that can be downloaded for free on Loose Change 2nd edition.  Those who wondered how for the first time in history reinforced steel and concrete buildings could collapse will find the implications in this film very disturbing. Also read how scary George Bush's brother Marvin is! http://www.loosechange911.com/ Here is some of the information it contained:

·                     March 13th, 1962 -Lyman Lemnitzer, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, presents a proposal to secretary of defense Robert McNamara, named Operation Northwoods.  The document proposed staging terrorist attacks in and around Guantanamo Bay, to provide a pretext for military intervention in Cuba.

·                      December 1st, 1984 -A remote-controlled Boeing 720 takes off from Edwards Air Force Base, and is crash landed by NASA for fuel research

·                      August, 1997-The cover of FEMA’s “Emergency Response to Terrorism” depicts the World Trade Center in crosshairs

·                      September, 2000 -The Project for a New American Century, a neo-conservative think tank whose members include Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, releases their report entitled “Rebuilding America’s Defenses.” In it, they declare that “the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a new Pearl Harbor". (pages 50-51)

·                      October 24th, 2000-The Pentagon conducts the first of two training exercises called MASCAL, which simulates a Boeing 757 crashing into the building. Charles Burlingame, an ex-Navy F4 pilot who worked in the Pentagon, participates in this exercise before retiring to take a job at American Airlines, where, less than a year later, his Boeing 757 allegedly crashes into the building.

·                     July 24th, 2001 - Larry A. Silverstein, who already owned World Trade Center 7, signs a $3.2 billion dollar, 99-year lease on the entire World Trade Center complex, six weeks before 9-11. Included in the lease is a $3.5 billion dollar insurance policy specifically covering acts of terrorism. In October 2001 Silverstein sought $7.2 billion from his insurers saying that the two planes represented a separate attack that would entitle him to a pair of payments. He also asked Congress to protect him from lawsuits from victims.

·                      September 6th, 2001- 3,150 put options are placed on United Airlines’ stock.  A put option is a bet that a stock will fall. That day, the put options were more than four times its daily average.   Bomb sniffing dogs are pulled from the World Trade Center, and security guards end two-weeks of 12 hour shifts under the direction of Marvin Bush, George Bush’s brother. Marvin Bush was a director of the  company Securacom also known as Stratesec. Sucuracom/Stratesec company was backed by the Kuwait-American Corporation. Once George Bush was made president of the United States Stratesec added a government division, “providing the same full range of security systems services as the commercial division.” They now had “an open ended contract with the General Services Administration (GSA) and a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with the agency that allows the government to purchase materials and services from the Company without having to go through a full competition.” – from a press release by Stratesec in December 2000- Securacom had a contract to provide security to the World Trade Center until the day it came down.  Neither the FBI nor any other agents have questioned anyone at Stratesec about the company's security work in connection with 9/11. According to the FBI regional office, since October 2001, "the investigation [of 9/11] is being coordinated at the national level, directly from the White House." One of the world's largest gold depositories was stored underneath the World Trade Center, owned by a group of commercial banks. After the WTC were demolished the better part of a billion dollars worth of precious metals went missing. It is not plausible that whatever destroyed the towers vaporized gold and silver, which are heavy malleable metals that are extremely unlikely to participate in chemical reactions with other materials. Some $230 million worth of gold was discovered in two trucks in a tunnel under the 5 World Trade Center in November 2001, giving rise to suspicions that the trucks were being used to remove the gold from the vaults before the South Tower fell.

September 7th, 2001 --27,294 put options are placed on Boeing’s stock, more than five times the daily average

·                   September 10th, 2001 - 4,516 put options are placed on American Airlines, almost 11 times its daily average.  Newsweek reports that a number of top Pentagon brass cancel their flight plans for the next morning.     San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown receives a phone call warning him not to fly the next morning. Pacifica Radio later reveals that this phone call came directly from National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice.

·                   September 11th, 2001- The National Reconnaissance Office in Chantilly, VA, is preparing for a exercise in which a small corporate jet crashes into their building.  NORAD is in the middle of a number of military exercises. The first, “Vigilant Guardian”, is described as “an exercise that would pose an imaginary crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide”, and “an air defense exercise simulating an attack on the United States.”  The second, “Northern Vigilance”, moved fighter jets to Canada and Alaska to fight off an imaginary Russian fleet.  Three F-16s from Washington D.C.’s National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base, 15 miles from the Pentagon, are flown 180 nautical miles away for a training mission in North Carolina.   This left 14 fighter jets to protect the entire United States.

Here's some more interesting tidbits about Marvin Bush MARVIN BUSH EMPLOYEE'S MYSTERIOUS DEATH – Connections to 9/11?   Washington Post Sits on Story for a Week  by Wayne Madsen (Special to From The Wilderness) © Copyright 2004, From The Wilderness Publications, www.fromthewilderness.com. All Rights Reserved. May be reprinted, distributed or posted on an Internet web site for non-profit purposes only.  October 10 , 2003, 1200 PDT, (FTW) -- WASHINGTON, At around 9 PM on September 29, Fairfax County, Virginia police responded to a 911 call describing an accident. However, they soon discovered they were not dealing with a routine emergency but the mysterious death of an employee of the 47-year old brother of President George W. Bush, venture capitalist Marvin Bush. Sixty-two year old Bertha Champagne, described as a long time "baby sitter" for Marvin and Margaret Bush's two children, son Walker, 13, and daughter Marshall, 17, was found crushed to death by her own vehicle in a driveway in front of the Bush family home in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County. Champagne reportedly lived at the Bush family home. Champagne had left the residence to retrieve something from her car, which police say had somehow been left in gear. According to the police report, the car rolled forward and pinned the woman between it and a small building next to the driveway (possibly a checkpoint built by the Secret Service when Marvin's father, George H. W. Bush, was president). The car crossed Edgehill Drive, a small street in front of the Bush compound. The vehicle then crossed a busy two-lane street, Fort Hunt Road, finally coming to rest in a wooded area across the street that adjoins the prestigious Belle Haven Country Club. No explanations have been offered as to why the vehicle did not move until Champagne was in a position to be crushed.  Champagne was pronounced dead on arrival at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital. Courtney Young, a spokesperson for the Fairfax County police was surprised when asked about the circumstances surrounding Champagne's death. She indicated the media was primarily focused on another Fairfax County story, the kidnapping and holdup of the wife of New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg on October 7. More mystifying is the fact that the Washington Post waited almost an entire week to publish the story about the baby sitter's death. The incident occurred on September 29, but the Post did not report it until October 5 and buried it on page 3 of the Metro section. Nevertheless, the Washington Post was the only media outlet to cover the story at all. Young said police still did not know the exact cause of Champagne's death.  Young said the police had posted the incident on its web site in a press release, although the report makes no mention of Marvin Bush. It reads: A 62-year-old Alexandria area woman died after being pinned between a rolling car and a building.  The crash happened on Monday, around 9 pm, near the intersection of Fort Hunt Road and Edgehill Drive.  Bertha Champagne had gone outside to get something from a car in a driveway.  The car, which was left in gear, began to roll forward.  Champagne was pinned between the car and a small building next to the driveway.  The car continued to roll down the driveway, crossed Fort Hunt Road, and came to rest in a wooded area.  Champagne was taken to Inova Mount Vernon Hospital where she was pronounced dead.   The press release is dated September 30 at 1330 (1:30 PM), some sixteen and a half hours after the incident occurred. The police were well aware of Marvin Bush's controversial role in serving on corporate boards for companies associated with the 911 terrorist attacks, however, they emphasized that Champagne's death was merely a quirky accident and no foul play was involved.  According to two articles in the Progressive Populist written by Margie Burns, from 1993 to 2000, Bush served on the board of Securacom (since renamed Stratesec). The chairman of the board of Stratesec is Wirt D. Walker III, a cousin of Marvin and George W. Bush. Securacom had contracts to provide security for Dulles International Airport (the airport from which American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon, originated) and the World Trade Center in New York. Securacom's backers include a number of Kuwaitis through a company called KuwAm Corp (Kuwaiti-American Corp.). Stratesec also has Saudi investors. Walker also serves as a managing director of KuwAm, which maintains offices within the Watergate complex along with Riggs Bank, on whose board Bush's uncle, Jonathan Bush, sits. Saudi Princess Haifa al Faisal, the wife of Saudi Ambassador to the US Prince Bandar, used a Riggs account to funnel money to Omar al Bayoumi and Osama Basnan, two Saudi students in California associated with two of the 911 hijackers. Until November 2002, Bush served on the board of HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (formerly Houston Casualty Company), a re-insurer for the World Trade Center. Bush still serves as an adviser to the firm. Walker serves as chief executive officer of Aviation General, an aircraft company backed by KuwAm. Aviation General, formerly Commander Aircraft, brokered the sale of airplanes to the National Civil Aviation Training Organization (NCATO), located in Giza, Egypt, the hometown of lead hijacker Mohammed Atta. NCATO is the only civilian pilot training school in Egypt. NCATO has a training agreement with Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Florida, the flight school that was investigated by the FBI for possibly training at least one of the 911 hijackers. A Houston businessman who worked closely with the Bush family over the years confided that Marvin Bush and Wirt Walker appear to have taken over the Saudi real estate investment and aircraft brokerage business once run out of Texas by Houston-based James Bath in association with Salem bin Laden, the late brother of Osama bin Laden, and Khalid bin Mahfouz. The source, who has dealt personally with the Bush family in Houston for a number of years, said there should be skepticism when looking at bizarre deaths like that of Champagne. The source speculated that Champagne might have happened upon some sensitive information the Bush family wanted kept secret.  Some observers wondered if Secret Service agents might have been able to assist Champagne when her car pinned her. According to the Secret Service in Washington, the agency only provides protection to presidential siblings if an Executive Order authorizes such action. A Secret Service spokesperson emphasized there is no current Secret Service protection for Marvin Bush. However, there remains a question why private security agents posted at the Bush compound could not have responded to Champagne's distress. There are also questions concerning Champagne's actual place of residence. According to the Post story, Bush told police that Champagne resided at their compound, However, a phone call to the directory-listed residence of Bertha Champagne in Franconia, Virginia resulted in Mrs. Champagne's son answering the phone. He confirmed that his mother lived at the Franconia address but he was clearly uncomfortable and nervous in talking to the media about the circumstances surrounding his mother's death.

 

30  July 2006 Sunday

Heading to Vegas tomorrow for a couple of days to see dear ol' Mom. Michael said he would look after the pups while I am gone.  Kind of a do nothing day. Fixed blueberry pancakes for breakfast and tacos for lunch.  Worked on the Gay archives some a little but mostly felt like napping. Dog days of summer except my dogs are jumping all over me. Mayor Rocky Anderson announced he's not running again so that's too bad. Everyone hated him except the residents of Salt Lake City.   Chad called and said that Kevin Hillman called and said that he would serve on Beyond Stonewall's planning committee. Great. Only Mark Thrash has not responded but Chad said that Mark's is heavily involved in his love life right now and I said good for him! I got a call from my dear friend John Reeves who lives in Boston. He and his spouse Jimmy Hamamoto were in Providence Rhode Island watching a festival of fire on the river.  He was excited to learn that Beyond Stonewall is back since he co-created it with me back in 1988.  Need to find a way to get him out here for it as a facilitator or key note speaker.  He's a professor of Sociology at Bunker Hill College in Cambridge, Mass. My second cousin called me Friday saying she was in town for her niece’s wedding.  Her husband's niece is a Mormon and Barbara flew to SLC with her daughter to attend the reception. You can't attend Mormon Weddings unless you are a card carrying Mormon but you can give gifts! I probably won't be writing anything until I get back from Vegas either Thursday or Friday.

 

31 July 2006 Monday

No entry

 

AUGUST

1 August 2006-2 August 2006

No entry

 

3  August 2006 Thursday

Stephanie Williams wrote me: Ok, Ben if you know who this is I will split it with you Steph “MY WILL, My name is Mrs. Hannah Jack Williams I am a dying woman who have decided to donate what I have to you/Organization. I am 59 years old and I was diagnosed for cancer about 2 years ago, immediately after the death of my husband, who had left me everything he worked for. I have been touched by God to donate from what I have inherited from my late husband to you for the good work of God than allow my relatives to use my husband hard earned funds ungodly. Please pray that the good Lord forgive me my sins. I have asked God to forgive me and I believe he has because He is a merciful God. I will be going in for an operation tomorrow morning. I decided to WILL/donate the sum of $3,500,000(Three million five hundred thousand dollars) to you/Organization for the good work of the lord, and also to help the motherless and less privilege and also for the assistance of the widows according to (JAMES 1:27). At the moment I cannot take any telephone calls right now due to the fact that my relatives are around me and my health status. I have adjusted my WILL and my Executor is aware I have changed my will, you and him will arrange the transfer of the funds from the Private Finance company to your humble self. I wish you all the best and may the good Lord bless you abundantly, and Please use the funds well and always extend the good work to others. Contact my Executor (Barrister Edward Hayes) with this specified Email: (barr_hayeschamber@boxbg.com) with your full names contact telephone/fax number and your full address and tell him that I have WILLED($3,500,000.00) to you and I have also notified him that I am WILL-IN that amount to you for a specific and good work. Thanks and God bless. NB: I will appreciate your utmost confidentiality in this matter until the task is accomplished as I don’t want anything that will Jeopardize my last wish. And Also I will be contacting with you by email as I don’t want my relation or anybody to know because they are always around me. Regards, Mrs. Hannah Jack Williams>” I responded: So how much money do they want you to send them to change the will? LOL How is your house coming along? I just got back from Vegas. Wasn't too bad 100 degrees.  Mom and Charline are fine. Talked to Barbara Danforth last weekend. She was in Utah for her husband's niece wedding. She was on a hectic schedule so we never did hook up. I will be back in school in another week. LUV Jr. PS. The only rich relatives we had was great great grandpa's G.K. Williams' sister Georgiana Simmons. Her children were all cattle barons in Ft. Worth Texas.

 

4 August 2006 Friday

Got back yesterday from Vegas. It was a quick trip and a short one.  It was in the 100's there but not insufferable. Had a nice encounter while there at the porn bookstore so that made it all the worth while.  I listened to Planet Simpson on CD to and from Vegas. It’s a pretty interesting book. Premise is that the Simpsons is just as much a cultural reference for the younger generation as much as anything else with each of the Simpson characters in archetype. Thank providence the heat wave here has broken. The 80's feel so wonderful. Well since War is breaking out I am going  with a military thing for pictures for a while.

 

5 August 2006 Saturday

No entry

 

6 August 2006 Sunday

Received my DNA results from DNA Family Tree yesterday and spent most of the evening trying to figure it out. My Haplotype which is the genetic subgroup I belong to is R1b1 which is the British Isles but not Anglo-Saxon.  My father's lineage is Celtic and my ancestor dude left his Y chromosome all over Ireland and Scotland and in particular Wales where my immigrant ancestor came from before settling in Colonial Virginia circa 1640's. Evidently after the last ice age, 10,000 years ago there were only about 60,000 Cro-Magnon (homo sapiens sapiens) humans (not counting Neanderthals) in all of Europe.  They divided into several Haplotypes  such as Mediterranean, Alpine, Nordic, Slavic, and Celtic and many more.  Mine was a Celtic daddy... Anyway already found two perfect matches with my DNA with other Williams who have North Carolina colonial roots so it verifies that my research I did with just legal documentation was accurate and also that my grandma's never strayed from their Williams male mates or my DNA would not match what I always thought it would. It’s kind of fascinating to know that one part of the male Y chromosome is virtually immortal when every other cell in the body dies. That one Y sex cell has existed from the beginning of time and keeps on going. Talk about an energizer bunny. It’s also fascinating to know that there are complete strangers out there that care similar DNA enough to show a common heritage. Any how spent yesterday trying to save my Maple tree my drilling holes in the ground to get iron down to its root system. I also went back to the gym in the afternoon while Mike and Tom Folks went to the Park City Art Festival. We had a fairly active thunder storm last night also.

 

7 August 2006-8 August 2006

No entry

 

9 August 2006 Wednesday

Nothing is as inevitable as change. Our neighbors stunned us with the news that they are looking to sell and move to a planned community in Draper. We have lived next doors to each other for nine years and they are the only neighbors we ever had since there are only two houses on our short block. More then neighbors they were our extended family and I am just sick at the prospect of them moving away. But time changes everything. Don't want to really think about it or I get really sad. I moved my mom into the same Mobile Home Park in Vegas as Kimberly's mom. That how close we are or I guess it will soon be past tense.  Hard to build up excitement for them when its going to be so lonesome here.

 

10 August 2006 Thursday

No entry

 

11 August 2006 Friday

A recent study conducted at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, found that a large percentage of men in Ireland (and quite a few in Scotland and Wales) share the same Y chromosome, suggesting that the 5th-century warlord known as "Niall of the Nine Hostages" may be the ancestor of one in 12 Irishmen! King Niall established a dynasty of powerful chieftains that dominated the island for six centuries. Niall of the Nine Hostages received his name from the taking of royal hostages in the 4th and 5th Century A.D. as a strategy for playing mental havoc upon his opponent chieftains. He is known in folklore as a raider of the British and French coasts as the Roman troops were being withdrawn to defend Italy. His descendants became the most powerful rulers of Ireland until the 11th century.  In the study scientists found that an area in northwest Ireland was the main powerbase of the Ui Neill kings, which literally translated means "descendants of "Niall". The Trinty College Y chromosome study appeared to trace this haplotype sequence back to one person King Niall. Why is this interesting to me? Because my Williams  12 markers Y chromosome signature is a perfect match to the Niall's family profile!  13-25-14-11-(11)-(13)-12-12-12-13-(14)-29 This haplotype signature is found only in .6 of one percent of the entire Family Tree DNA database. While the haplotype signature is typical for R1b European the 11, 13, and 14 makes it unique to known descendants of the O'Neil family. Niall of the Nine Hostages captured a British Roman young during one of his raids who later became known as St. Patrick who is credited with introducing Christianity to the Celtic Pagans of Ireland. Besides kidnapping St. Patrick in his youth, Niall's reign is known mainly for two things. First, he consolidated the northern region of Ireland and created a dynasty that kept his descendants as High Kings of Ireland for 600 years. Second, his military ability led him to the Irish Control of all of Alba and a large part of Britain. He seriously damaged the Romans ability to control Britain and even managed to carve out some Irish controlled territory in France. It is said this Irish Empire was only eclipsed in size by Dathi's, Niall's nephew and successor. Well I was surprised to find that I am a direct Y Chromosome descendant of this Celtic king but I have no idea how during the next 1000 years one of his progeny found himself in Celtic Wales, where my Williams ancestor set sail to America in mid 17th Century and landed up in Virginia. Sure explains why so much of my FamilyTree DNA matches are located in Ireland and not Wales where I expected to find all of them.  It also helps explain why I am so drawn to all things Faerie and Bohemian. Its in the blood.  I remember studying that when the Romans encountered the Celts of the British Isles that the said they were fierce warriors who painted their bodies blue and fought naked.  The Romans also noted how same sex love was prevalent among the Celts even by Roman standards!

 

12 August 2006-14 August 2006

No entry

 

15 August 2006 Tuesday

My last official day of my Summer vacation and of course I was at work all day putting together music song books I created. Lots of American Folk songs; Buffalo Gals, Buffalo Boy, Little Liza Jane, On Top of Old Smoky, etc. with lots of Pete Seeger songs, the Weavers, and some Beatles thrown in for good measure. Sunday was a fun productive first meeting for Beyond Stonewall 07 (BSWO7) and was especially fun seeing the video montage that Dan had put together on the previous Beyond Stonewalls and seeing old friends I haven't seen in years. There was a good vibe and enthusiasm for the retreat and I think we have a good committee with Dan Fahndrich, Chad Keller, Michael Aaron, Ron Hunt, and Kevin Hillman on board. We made three important decisions at the planning meeting. 1st we settled on a cost of $100 for the Weekend Retreat, that it would be a retreat for Gay identified men, and that we would meet on cyberspace until January. The decision of having BSW07 a Gay men's retreat invoked the most discussion. But once the point was made that BSW does not have to focus on "community building" as much as it did 15 years ago, then it was easy to see how having a workshop retreat to address Gay men's issues in the 21st century would be very productive. From now until January we will be thinking about topics, lists of facilitators and key note speakers. We will be keeping in touch through a BSW07 Group Site I created for committee members, until we actually meet again. Yesterday I took my Daisy May in to be spaded and she stayed over night.  I expected her to be wobbly today but when I picked her up and took her home she acted as the whole ovarian yank didn't even faze her! She is such a great dog and companion. Chad teased me on Sunday when I said I was having Daisy May spaded by saying if I had been a Lesbian, the two males would be the ones having their nuts removed rather then the females being spaded.  Perhaps. This morning I spent $350 having a new windshield wiper motor put in the truck. Ouch! but when the snow flies I sure want to be able to see out my windshield. There's a cease fire in the Middle East between Lebanon and Israeli finally and the terrorist threat to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic seems to have abated.  I am not such a true believer in the War on Terror anymore since we seem to be doing everything we can in our power to create them because of our failed right wing foreign policies. Been watching old disaster movies lately: In Old Chicago, The Rains Came, and San Francisco.  Tyrone Powers is in Old Chicago and The Rains Came and I think he's one of the most beautiful men who ever lived. In Old Chicago O'Leary's cow burns down the place and in the Rains Came, a Indian City is destroyed by an earthquake and a dam collapse. Powers Plays an Irish O'Leary scoundrel and a noble Indian doctor. No typecasting there. Of course in San Francisco after Jeanette MacDonald sings her heart out to that bastard Clark Gable you get earthquake and fire!  I love old B & W melodrama disaster movies where everyone learns a moral lesson. Hooray for Hollywood!

 

16 August 2006 Wednesday

Elvis Presley died 29 years ago! Can you believe it? And now they say there are more planets in the solar system and we are sitting close to the Yellowstone Super Volcano that is bound to blow in the next couple of 1000 years! Or Sooner. My official first day back to work. I have 28 students and more will probably come. My car died right after work while I was dropping off dry cleaning in Bountiful! Battery just went kaput! But Mike was almost off work so I called him and he came down and used a battery pack to start the car and we have been recharging it all evening while we rearranged the house furniture for company this weekend.  Mike's brother is flying in from California for a job interview, and his mom and dad and sister are driving down from Wyoming and Colorado.  We had to make sure we had enough room for beds and pull outs in our small house. So that's my day. How was yours?

 

17 August 2006 Thursday

Another expensive day. Spent $400 having an alternator put in the truck. Still better then car payments for sure. School is back in swing with all the little dramas, passive aggression, people pleasing and power plays that revolves in an almost total female work place. It’s was a long day and a sweltering one in my room. I come home just drained from the heat.

 

18 August 2006-21 August 2006

No entry

 

22 August  2006 Tuesday

Things are getting back to normal. Last Friday Mike's folks came down from Wyoming and his brother flew in from California for a job interview so it was a busy weekend for sure. Fay and Bill brought their three Shi Tzus and with our four we had a full house. Yesterday my next door neighbor said they weren't moving after all because, among other things, they didn't want to leave us. We just cried.  However I now hear that Randy may be finding work as security out in Wendover but I can't imagine him uprooting the gang especially when Kimberley is a supervisor for Jet Blue ticket sales. Life is interesting. I am supposed to meet Polly someone at the Center this evening. They want to interview some "old timers" about their coming out experiences.

 

23 August 2006 Wednesday

No entry

 

24 August 2006 Thursday

School is back is session. My classroom teeters around 88 degrees with seven fans swirling the hot air.  So far none of my kids have passed out or have had nose bleeds but they get to leave by 1:30 all this week.  I think I will have a nice class and I met with my student teacher today. Her name is Arrowsmith. Pretty cool. I get home exhausted from the heat and just need down time to cool off but nooo… there are puppy kisses and hugs to contend with. Thank Sirius! Wrote my next column for QSL on personalities from the French Revolution. I may have been drunk when I wrote it.  Oh well. Can't be any worse then Rhett Barney when he's sober. I sent Polly Stewart contacts for 32 people for the center's coming out video. I think she was impressed that I was able to give them to her the next day. Soooo happy that my neighbors decided not to move after all but are just going to do home improvements. Randy is going to cut branches off my trees with the chainsaw I bought last month. I buy the tools and butch Randy uses them. Symbiotic relationship. He said their daughter has a male teacher for 4th grade who Randy says has to be Gay and Kayla says its just like having Ben as my teacher. Cool. Darth Bush, Darth Rumfield and Darth Condom Reeses Dirty Rice is coming to town at the end of the month. Rocky Skywalker Anderson and Princess Sheehan are going to be here also for the rumble. Everyone bring light sabers and their favorite wookie.

 

25 August 2006 Friday

Can you believe it Pluto is not a planet anymore! The God of the underworld has been banished again. Does this mean my horoscope is now truly a horrorscope? Well I can see the thousands of science teachers ripping off Pluto from their solar system charts. More money out of our pockets to update. It was Back to School night last night and a couple of cute blue collar daddies showed up. But it was a long 12 hour day in a warm stuffy room. Could be worse my friend Jennifer Lewis at Orchard says she has 18 boys and 8 girls in her class. Yikes! It was thundering and lightening and raining after 1 a.m. for most of the night. Poor Priscilla, my dachshund mix grand dame just becomes a nervous Nelly when she hears thunder so she had a hard night. Mike had Tom Folk over last night watching something on the big screen. I just read emails, did a little computer work, and went to bed.

 

26 August 2006 Saturday

Today was not a fun day. This morning as I was moving some dead tree limbs I had cut down early in the year for the city clean up pile, I disturbed a nest of ground wasps that attacked me. I never had such a miserable experience. I yelled for Michael to come turn the hose on me but I was stung about 20 times. I was stung in my right eyelid and my eye is still swollen so I can hardly see out of it.  I have been keeping an ice pack on it but all the other little stabs are still sore and stinging. I think I have only been stung by a wasp once before and never by a Swarm. I think if I had any allergy to bee stings I would be in the hospital right now not typing in my blog. Pretty tired so I think I will go to bed and hope the swelling goes down. My neighbors said my whole face looks swollen. I know I had several stings in my neck and under my chin as well as my eye.  They got into my loose shirt and was stinging me there too until I could pull that off. Oy Vey What I day I am having.

 

27 August 2006 -28 August 2006

No entry

 

29 August 2006 Tuesday

I wrote a letter to the SLTribune: Every time I read a letter to the editor penned by Doug Dansie (Aug 29) I get a queasy, nauseous feeling and I have to put down my toast.  His message is always the same, a parrot apologist for the dominant religion and culture.  He even once outrageously wrote, in a prominent alternative Salt Lake paper, that the people who were slaughtered in the Mountain Meadow Massacre had it coming to them because of the alleged slights given by them to the local Mormons.  His strident anti-progressive views would be comical if they weren’t so sadly prevalent in a state that was founded by 19th Century progressives of which only Rocky Anderson is a true political descendant. Ben Williams

 

30 August 2006 Wednesday

Interesting day in the city of Salt by a dead lake.  Our Mayor Rocky Anderson basically called George W. Bush the worse president in American history, a liar, and horses’ ass.  Our mayor spoke at Washington Square to more then 5000 at an anti-Bush and war rally. The hypocrites (pronounced Republicans) are madder then the yellow jackets that stung my ass last Saturday especially at our mayor.  Neocons are fuming that Rocky would speak at a protest when Bush is coming to Salt Lake City to speak to the VFW.   I suppose they would rather have a Nuremburg extravaganza instead.  Let's all goose step to our corporate masters. Mike and I drove downtown after work to give the pups a ride and at an anti-war rally at Pioneer Park there were nearly 20 cop cars parked on 3rd South. I told Mike I bet you anything there won't be any over at Washington Square where a Pro Bush and pro war rally is taking place and sure enough there wasn't one cop car that I could see as we drove around the block.  The Washington Square Rally had at the most maybe 200-300 people there but at least 2/3 were children dragged along by their breeder parents!  Mike and I laughed when we saw a school bus from Provo filled will elementary school children leaving the rally! Lots of gas guzzling SUV parked for the  pro Bush rally. Sixth South is all blocked off on the outbound lane near the Marriott Grand America where Bush will have all his ass lickers groveling. A young soldier killed in Iraq almost had his funeral disrupted by the Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas who is protesting at funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq saying that God killed them for defending a "fag  nation".  A group of motorcyclist bikers surrounded the funeral to keep the assholes away.  I guess there is also a Death to Israel going on to so downtown is quite lively for a change. I am feeling much better and my eye has gone back to normal after swelling to the size of a walnut after the yellow jacket attack. I guess old Warren Jeff the polliwog was finally captured in Las Vegas of all places! LOL  Viva Las Vegas! I watched "What Ever Happed to Baby Jane?" last night. hadn't seen it in years although I have it on video tape.  Got to love old Bette Davis kicking the shit out Joan Crawford's crippled Blanche character.  There are some fabulous lines throughout the movie that have become legendary. Blanche says, "You couldn't do this to me if I wasn't in this wheel chair.' Jane retorts "But ya are Blanche, but ya are."

Actor Glenn Ford, who played strong, thoughtful protagonists in films such as "The Blackboard Jungle,""Gilda" and "The Big Heat," died on Aug. 30. He was 90. Failing health forced Ford to skip a 90th birthday tribute on May 1 at Hollywood's historic Grauman's Egyptian Theatre. But he did send greetings via videotape, adding, "I wish I were up and around, but I'm doing the best that I can.... There's so much I have to be grateful for

 

31 August 2006 Thursday

No entry

 

SEPTEMBER

1 September 2006-3 September 2006

No entry

 

4 September 2006 Monday Labor Day

"The Crocodile Hunter", Steve Irwin, 44, who made a career out of getting dangerously close to deadly beasts, was stabbed through the heart on Sept. 4, by a stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

 

5 September  2006 Tuesday

Well an pretty uneventful Labor Day Holiday has come and gone. Managed to make it through the weekend without being attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. Mike took Smokey off to Fort Collins to see his folks so I just babysat the other pooches.  I know I am getting old when Michael Aaron invites me to a nudist movie party and I decide to stay home and watch a movie with my pups!  Watched Bang Bang Kiss Kiss or is it Kiss Kiss Bang Bang? Does it really matter? Nope. But I really like Robert Downey Jr and Val Kilmer was fun as Gay Perry. I also watched a documentary on Queer Cinema. It was just so so.  I am not in the loop I suppose. On Labor Day I canned 12 jars of peach jam from by tree. Didn't get as much fruit off the tree as last year. I feel so connected to my wizen grandmas when I am canning jam and there is so much faerie energy in gathering the fruit and transforming it by magick into preserves to spread on muffins all winter long. I renewed my membership to the Trapp. More out of nostalgia and loyalty I guess since I only go out once in a blue moon, and not at all this past summer. Reread Love Poem of J. Alfred Prufrock.  I try reading it once a year at least. Fell in love with the poem in college some 36 years ago and now that I am older then when T.S. Elliot wrote the blessed thing I relate even more. "I am old I am old I shall wear my trousers rolled," had no meaning for me at 18.  But I truly feel like Elliott now for I too hear the mermaids singing and they are not singing for me. I spent much of the weekend making seven CDs of classical music and researching the internet for information on each of composition.  I am really moved by Erik Satie's Gymopedie No 1 and can't get enough of Borodin's Romeo and Juliet especially the March of the Montagues and Capulets.  So I lay in the dark surrounded by my furry friends, dreamily taken to far away places by the ethereal strains of melodic sound waves pulsating against my eardrums. In this half conscious state I conjure up dead lovers and ghostly friends and we embrace. Then we part. Such is life at 55.

 

6 September 2006-8 September 2006

No Entries

 

9 September 2006 Saturday

It's an election year and therefore the price of oil is coming down after the über- rich made a transfer of wealth from the poor to themselves and are now trenching to scare the bejeezuz out of the commoners by resurrecting Osama and the war on global terror. Gone are discussions on immigration, health care reform, minimum wage, global warming, and all other failed social and political ideology of the über-rich's minions err Republicans.  Don't pay any attention to us über-rich Corporate overlords feeding on the carcass of third worlders- it's them Islamofascists out there that's gonna get you in the night! Boo! Trust Us! I see that the BYU professor of physics who's been saying that the planes hitting the WTC towers were just a diversion for them being blown up with explosives has been put on paid administrative leave.  Someone among the über-rich must have put the screws to BYU. The talibaptists and other members of the Christian Reich are squealing that if Republicans lose Congress dogs will be fucking cats and the natural order of the world will go topsy turvy and then boy with Yahweh be pissed off!  Better get your asbestos umbrellas out because here comes the fire and brimstone. Thank ya Jeeezus! Mike's all into this Red Box McDonald $1 Rental where you can rent new releases for a buck. He discovered how easy it is when in Colorado and now is hooked- We've seen Robin Williams' RV, Peirce Brosnan’s The Matador, and Disney's Eight Below about the poor sled dogs left behind in Antarctica to fend for themselves.  Can't stand to see dogs hurt. I worried more about the dogs left on the Titanic then I did about old Leonardo. Since we have a wall screen projection type home theater we set our aging butts in our Lazy Boys, grow fatter, and let Hollywood mesmerize us for a few more hours. The American Dream.  Nothing at all is on TV and since Bob Schrieffer left CBS news last Thursday I don't even watch the news.  I got weepy when he said his farewells. All the greats are gone. I hope Katie Couric lives up to her hype.  The rest are pretty boys that while they can give you a "hard on" they rarely give you hard news with the grace and gentility of the old school. Tom Folk came over last night to watch movies and have pizza with Mike and I.  I like Tom but I don't get him. He said he was going to stop and get some wine but spaced it off, and after having pizza and wine with Mike, he then told Mike that the DVD he picked up for him cost $11. Mike just gave him $10.  I don't get it.  I was never raised that way. The movie Tom brought over was a Gay-themed Film Noir TV movie called the “Third Man Out". It was like a Gay Nick and Nora Charles type detective movie.    The other movie was Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion which had its fun moments. Nothing really Gay in it but Tyler Perry dresses as Madea a 60 something matriarch of an extended black family in Atlanta Georgia. Cicely Tyson  as well as Maya Angelou and a basically all black cast was in it . Wish the smoke would leave the valley. Idaho and Montana are on fire so the smoke is drifting down here.  Leaves are all changing higher up. Fall is in the air for sure.  I guess I should go check the peach tree and see what the birds have left me. Email to Mom-Hi Mom, Hope all is well. Fall is in the air up here. I am over all my bee stings thank goodness. The pups are getting bigger and Priss and Smokey are good. We had our fall clean up and Randy helped me cut down a lot of branches in the back yard. School is okay so far. Luv

 

10 September 2006-16 September 2006

No entries

 

17 September 2006 Sunday

Well summer is over in Utah. We had a very soaking rain for the past two days with much cooler temps. We even had slush and some hail out of the storm. The Oquirrh Mountains are blanketed with snow and you can see heavy snow in the back country of the Wasatch. Read in the Pillar that Wasatch Affirmation has dissolved after 20 years. Its gone back to the name Salt Lake Chapter of Affirmation.  I doubt whether anyone remembers how or why the Wasatch Chapter was started accept for Russ Lane and I but then I don't think Russ probably does either for that matter.  He's in very poor health. Visited with Chad Keller yesterday at his new place on 3rd North. He and Mark Thrash are room mates and I like their place and location. Chad is working and in school so is a busy boy these days. Biggest latest gossip in national news is that Karl Rove, Bush's Machiavellian had a Gay father and no its not the Pillsbury Doughboy.  Republican hypocrisy and meanness is just beyond the pale. They pander to the far rights most basic fears and hatefulness so they can surreptitiously transfer more wealth from the middle class and poor to the greedy rich. Talked to mom Friday and she said that my nephew is having a baby boy. Baby won't be born until February. He will be named James Edgar Clark II.  Edgar is a family name that goes back to 1873. That is how I inherited it.  I guess all is well with the rest of the clan. Been watching an awful lot of movies lately since Michael has discovered McDonald's Red Box.  I am still getting movies through Netflix. Latest one we watched that was really fun was a German film "Guys and Balls". It's a typical come from behind and win movie but really fun since the underdogs are a rag tag group of Gay German soccer players.  Another similar film but a world away is "Iron Ladies" a film of based on a true story of Thai drag queens who win Thailand's National Volleyball Championship. That one is also really fun. But you have to read subtitles in both. Watched "Ex-Fuehrer", another German film set in East Germany as the Berlin wall is coming down. It has homoaffection inclinations, lots of full frontal prison nudity but I wouldn't say it was a Gay film. For my own enjoyment I rented an old very old television series "Love That Bob" aka the Bob Cummings Show (1955-1959).  It’s the romantic misadventures of Bob Collins, a suave bachelor and glamour photographer operating in Hollywood, California. The show centers on his womanizing ways with his models, his secretary's infatuation with him, his nephew's horniness, and his sister's attempts to make him settle down. Featured players are Bob Cummings, Ann B. Davis, Rosemary de Camp, and Dwayne Hickman.  Shows were written by Paul Henning pre-Beverly Hill Billies. One of my favorite episodes included all the classic dykes of early TV sitcoms, Ann B. Davis, Nancy Kulp, and Rose Marie! Well there's nothing on TV today as well written....

 

18 September 2006 Monday

Went to Affirmation for the first time in years because I read that the old Wasatch Affirmation was discontinued. The local chapter has been re-organized and is known as Affirmation Salt Lake.  Since its been 20 years since the Wasatch Affirmation was formed by Russ Lane I felt like I wanted to see what the new group is all about. Brian Bennington, Duane Jennings' partner, and Craig Steiner are the new co-directors. Duane and Rick Bickmore will still be on hand to help out. The Sunday meeting was held at the MCC building on 6th East, and soon it felt like homecoming with Craig Hunter, Willy Marshall, John Cooper, Bob McIntier and others familiar faces from the olden days.  I sat with Craig and Willy, gave little back rubs and caught up with each others lives.  Willy is still living in Big Water but comes to SLC on the weekends.  He said that John Butler is living in some communal cult in Myrtle Beach SC. He's 60 now and has totally put the LaBarons and Tony Feliz and all other Mormon sects behind him. I finally found out what is wrong with Russ Lane from Willy Marshall.  He has Parkinson's Disease. Leave it to Willy to just go up and ask him!  Willy was afraid that Russ might have AIDS but its Parkinson's that is destroying his health.  Russ Lane was always such a health nut...drinking nasty wheat grass juice and lots of rabbit food. Wouldn't hardly touch meat. Few today remember what a dynamo he was when he started Wasatch Affirmation. Another reason I went to the meeting was because a presentation on Gay Mormon history was being given and I thought I might learn something but it was a rehash of Michael Quinn, Rocky O’Donovan, and Jay Bell's research as well as some of mine although I hadn't been given credit. After the meeting stayed and talked with Brian Bennington and others about Mormon history and later Willy Marshall and I visited and reminisced about days of yore.  He said that he saw Billy Bikowski sometime back at a LDS single Ward dance and made Billy talk to him.  Billy was extremely uncomfortable and said he had been going to Evergreen and wanted to get married, have a family, and put the past behind him.  Poor lost soul. It was a pleasant meeting under 20 people there, mostly middle-aged men and some thirty-something Lesbians.  Like all support and social groups in Utah, Affirmation is struggling. I think the Golden Age of Support groups have come and gone.  Going to Affirmation tonight made me realize even more how far I have journeyed these past 20 years.  Affirmation spoke of four categories that Gay Mormons often find them in-DNA Mormons, Cultural Mormons, Ethnic Mormons, Spiritual Mormons. I did not feel that I belonged to any of those definitions.  My sojourn through Mormonism is a part of my history but really isn't a part of me anymore. And I am happy for that. Someone set a bomb off in the SLC Library. I would like to stick a pipe bomb up his ass.  Our beautiful library, the true Salt Lake City Temple of Humanism.

 

19 September 2006 Tuesday

No entry

 

20 September 2006 Wednesday

The 19th would have been my Grandpa Johnson's 105th birthday. He was a hoot and had the gift for gab, the old hillbilly. He's been gone ten years now.  Monday I had my ESL class, trying to convince us why the balkanization of the U.S. is a good thing,  and Tuesday I made my student teacher cry by telling her she had to have more control over the kids. Oh well.  I was nice about it but some people just don't take criticism very well even when inter spliced with lots of positives. Last night I entered the rest of June from my 1986 Journal where I finally broke off with Russ Lane, the Restoration Church, and my marriage. People mentioned who are still around were Willy Marshall, Jon Butler, Bob McIntier, Mike Howard, Marc Lamar and Craig Hunter. This morning its gloomy and rainy this last day of summer

 

21 September 2006 Thursday

Todd Bennett and Ron Hunt host several bear house parties through out the year. Its a nudist party as well.  Mike Romero is a roommate that I have lived with for a number of years. We aren't lovers anymore  just house mates and at times companions. We started out as lovers then moved into just friends. Its at time awkward because the comfort boundaries shift from time to time.  I bought out his interest in the house but he still helps out with the pups. I have two 6 month old miniature schnauzers and a 10 year old dachshund mix and he has a 8 year old miniature schnauzer as well. We don't party together and kind of keep our sex lives to ourselves....probably more info then you needed. LOL

 

22 September 2006 Friday

Well lets see what is happening with me? Luci Malin asked if I had a list of past board members of the GLBTIQLMOPCCLU- aka The Center. So I spent my entire evening searching my archives for lists of board members of the various community centers we have had through out the year. And I am thinking don't they keep minutes and shouldn't they have these lists?  Luci Malin is a board member so if she doesn't know how to access a list I wonder if they are even keeping records.   So that is how I spent my evening. It took nearly 3 1/2 hours.  It still pisses me off that they have that the Utah Stonewall Center was started in 1992 and that the GLBTCCU started in 1997.   They can't even get that right and far be it from asking people who know. The Utah Stonewall Center grand opening was June 1, 1991 and closed its doors October 1, 1997. The GLCCU had its grand opening in October 1998! I should know I wrote the fucking speech about the history of the community that they asked Kim Russo to give.  Oh well if they can't even get their history right makes you wonder what else is amiss.  They don't care. It all happened before their time and they won't stick around long enough to be bothered. It was like when Pride Day said 2004 was 20 years of Gay Pride in Utah! Morons.   But no they can't admit they are wrong because, like George W., they are the "deciders". Finished my Cross-cultural awareness project for my ESL endorsement today. It's not due until the 28th but good to get it finished. I wonder if I'd had taken pictures of the gang fight on the corner of my house today I could have brought it as show and tell for Cultural traditions of my neighborhood: swearing, graffiti, and gang fights. But by golly their parents do the work that Americans won't, so why should I complain? Gee I am in a pissy mood. Must be catching something. Colds are starting to pass through the school. I had three kids absent today and it’s been rainy and cool. Probably more pissed that I went and bought season tickets for the Grand Theater and made sure I had aisle seats for Mike's big feet, and instead of being excited tells me that he might have other plans tomorrow. I am not sure why I bother at all.  Sometimes I think Mike is like a bunion something that I have grown use to but still is a pain. Well my poochies sure like this cooler weather, they are even more rambunctious then before.  They take a lot of energy but they sure give a lot of love back for the effort unlike most lovers. Speaking of lovers, someone that I dated okay fucked, about three years ago when Mike and I were experiencing our annual on the outs, contacted me via email and wants to go out on a date. His name is Patrick Kimber.  I can without qualms now since Mike said last May said that he only wants us to be room mates.  But it is going to be really awkward I think if I want to bring him home...kinda like two divorced people still living in the same house dating.  Not sure if it’s worth the drama it might arouse. I love using the word aroused as much as I can. In the news Pope Bend- a- Dick Rated X has pissed off the Muslims by saying that they have a violent religion and the Muslims are threatening to kill the pope for saying that their religion promotes violence. Am I they only one that thinks they are both insane? In Utah we have a tax for the rich and one for the poor now. The poor can get a tax cut up to $48 thanks to the Republicans while the Uber Rich will get $750 back. Hmmm. Now that’s fair.

Edward Albert, the actor son of the late screen veteran Eddie Albert who first gained fame co-starring with Goldie Hawn in the 1970s film, "Butterflies Are Free," and later became an outspoken environmental activist, died on Sept. 22. He was 55. Albert, who served on the California Coastal Commission, died in his sleep at his home in Malibu, Calif., after a battle with lung cancer.

 

23 September 2006 Saturday

No entry

 

24 September 2006 Sunday

It was a beautiful if cool fall day. Yesterday Mike and I went to the Grand Theater and watched The Pump Boys and Dinettes. It was a hoot. He decided to go at the last minute after Chad Keller said he was at work and couldn't go with me. Today just really cleaned the house by polishing, dusting, vacuuming, all the boring but essential work it takes to keep a house up.  I've finished putting my 1986 Journal on my Blogger site up to the end of July. It was the best of times- it was the worse of times...where did I hear that before?

 

25 September 2006 Monday

Beautiful fall weather although I didn't get to enjoy much of it being inside all day and going to my ESL class until 7 p.m. Bought a new bed in a bag comforter yesterday. Ahhh! A simple pleasure of life...fresh crisp sheets and a snugly comforter.  September is fast slipping away and then it will be October the Gayest month of all! Someone named Christopher Feld emailed me through QSL wanting some help with research about Gay Salt Lake City in the 1950's. I emailed him back and said that I would. I've never heard back from Luci Malin. I assume she got the email I sent her on past board members of our community centers.  Billy Bikowski's 45th birthday is the 28th of this month. He will always be 25 years old in my heart..the shit. Debbie Rosenberg wished me a Happy Rosh Hashanah today. I want to wish everyone a Happy Mabon. Anyway sleep well all my friends and adversaries. Lets get our rest and resume the battle tomorrow.

 

26 September 2006 Tuesday’

No Entry

 

27 September 2008 Wednesday

I have the sniffles so not sure whether coming down with a cold or not. My puppies are chewing my walls. They are not eating me out of house and home they are eating my home.  Little stinkers. Gas prices are slowly coming down. Mike filled up at Exxon’s for $2.64 per gallon. Just a week ago it was $2.89.  That's what I paid at Flying J and it cost $40 to fill the tank up. Can't think of much news...meeting with this kid Christopher Feld Friday about news records I have from the 1950's. Probably will go to Todd Bennett and Ron Hunt's party this Saturday with Patrick Kimber. I suppose it is LDS Conference weekend this weekend since Sunday is the 1st of October. Bars should be hopping then. Hope everyone is well.

 

28 September 2006 Thursday

No entry

 

29 September 2006 Friday

Finally came down with the head cold that had been teasing me all week. I took today off to rest and to eat the chicken soup I made. I also made an apple cobbler. The autumn makes me want to start eating apples and cinnamon. I met Christopher Feld today at the Center and of course they were closed! They are always closed in the day time any more.  So I waited for him in my car and then we hooked up by sitting at the little table that they have behind the joint.  Christopher is a 23 year old transplant from Pennsylvania who is a senior at the U of U working on a degree in history. Man after my own heart.  He's working on a book about Gay Salt Lake in the 1950's so I gave him a cd with 83 pages of research I have done on the SLC Tribune and other sources.  He's tall, dark and handsome and young enough for me to be his daddy.  We talked for nearly two hours in the warm Autumn Sun about all types of things from politics, history, and local personalities. He said our visit was the most fun he's had in weeks. That made me happy.  I told him that if he wants to run something past me or just wants a history fix, since we are both history junkies, that he could call me anytime. Picked up an issue on QSL at the Trapp before heading home and low and behold David Nelson in a tux is the cover story! Naturally it was on guns and Gays. I wrote my article on my coming out in 1986 since Coming Out Day falls within the time frame of this issue.  Yesterday was Billy Bikowski's 45th birthday and I wanted to write something about it but I was feeling peckish so just went to bed early.  Funny how some people can still cause the heart to dim after all these years.  Billy once said he couldn't wait until I stopped loving him so we could be just friends. Its been a long wait Billy. 20 years and I have no pictures of you except those that remain in my heart and mind.

 

30 September 2006 Saturday

No Entry

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