Po-tree
I went to Lincoln to see a poetry slam this weekend. The woman who was hosting the slam was a woman who I thought was "the one" about ten years ago. Her fiance was there and a few days before I headed down, I received their wedding announcement. The guy is awesome.
Needless to say, this is one of those wedding announcements that affects you more than others. Even down to the person who you're going to take to the wedding. My best friend is almost 3,000 miles away for a job. This one girl I know is taking a trip during the wedding. That leaves a few stray choices. While I was driving to Lincoln, not really paying attention to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," I started to think that maybe those studies were right: we do have fewer and fewer friends than in years past. I don't want to go solo, because I know this woman and I don't want her to worry about trying to pair me up with a few people who I can strike up a conversation with.
The poetry slam was great. One of the readers had a poingant introduction to his poem. He revealed last year that he had three major surgeries and came close to dying. A woman, his soul mate helped him through those months. And in front of a packed house, he proposed to her. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house, and I saw several tattooed bikers.
Sunday, I was reading the New York Times. Noticing how they seem to put all of the "death" stories at the front, and the other 4/5 of the paper they dedicated to lavish wealth (Travel section, real estate listings for condos that would cost a month's salary to rent for two hours, the Business section), youth (see the Style section) and a bit on Sports. In the Book Review section, they reviewed a book by this author who is also gay. The critic (sorry I don't have a name, a small bottle of generic Windex sprung a leak and was absorbed by the newspaper yesterday) was commenting on the main character: a middle-aged man who has to care for his elderly mother. The critic commented about the loneliness of the main character - saying that due to his age and the fact that the gay community is so youth-obsessed, he had little to nothing to offer for a mate once his looks went south.
Ouch.
Gay men face the same challenges of women in this world when it comes to age. You go to the bars and you see that desperate look at around 12:15 from some of the bargoers who have yet to score a hookup. It's the same look that people have on December 23 when they are in Target and 15 minutes before closing and everything has been taken. They have to come back with something...anything. We can still see Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and Jack Nicholson have plausible relationships with 20-somethings in movies and not much is said. The benefits of having credit in the straight world. When a chases a younger guy, it's usually played to comedic effect. In the movie Something's Gotta Give, more fuss was made over Diane Keaton's relationship with Keanu Reeves than Jack Nicholson's fling with Amanda Peet.
Needless to say, this is one of those wedding announcements that affects you more than others. Even down to the person who you're going to take to the wedding. My best friend is almost 3,000 miles away for a job. This one girl I know is taking a trip during the wedding. That leaves a few stray choices. While I was driving to Lincoln, not really paying attention to "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," I started to think that maybe those studies were right: we do have fewer and fewer friends than in years past. I don't want to go solo, because I know this woman and I don't want her to worry about trying to pair me up with a few people who I can strike up a conversation with.
The poetry slam was great. One of the readers had a poingant introduction to his poem. He revealed last year that he had three major surgeries and came close to dying. A woman, his soul mate helped him through those months. And in front of a packed house, he proposed to her. I don't think there was a dry eye in the house, and I saw several tattooed bikers.
Sunday, I was reading the New York Times. Noticing how they seem to put all of the "death" stories at the front, and the other 4/5 of the paper they dedicated to lavish wealth (Travel section, real estate listings for condos that would cost a month's salary to rent for two hours, the Business section), youth (see the Style section) and a bit on Sports. In the Book Review section, they reviewed a book by this author who is also gay. The critic (sorry I don't have a name, a small bottle of generic Windex sprung a leak and was absorbed by the newspaper yesterday) was commenting on the main character: a middle-aged man who has to care for his elderly mother. The critic commented about the loneliness of the main character - saying that due to his age and the fact that the gay community is so youth-obsessed, he had little to nothing to offer for a mate once his looks went south.
Ouch.
Gay men face the same challenges of women in this world when it comes to age. You go to the bars and you see that desperate look at around 12:15 from some of the bargoers who have yet to score a hookup. It's the same look that people have on December 23 when they are in Target and 15 minutes before closing and everything has been taken. They have to come back with something...anything. We can still see Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas and Jack Nicholson have plausible relationships with 20-somethings in movies and not much is said. The benefits of having credit in the straight world. When a chases a younger guy, it's usually played to comedic effect. In the movie Something's Gotta Give, more fuss was made over Diane Keaton's relationship with Keanu Reeves than Jack Nicholson's fling with Amanda Peet.
posted by TransformerGeek at 6:32 AM
1 Comments:
I caught your Hole reference.
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