Harvey's Book Tour

 

Last weekend "CBS Sunday Morning" featured an author interview with Broadway legend Harvey Fierstein to promote the release of his hilarious backstage memoir I Was Better Last Night. 

The small town in Connecticut where Harvey now lives seems picture perfect for a writer's life, and it's probably a short train ride into the city when one has to appear on stage or take a meeting. (I've been buying all the wrong PowerBall tickets.) 

I finished his book last week, and I recommend the Audible version to get the full croak and throaty experience. Friends have also recommended the new Billy Porter memoir, which may be next on my list for a listen. What is it with me and the memoirs?

2020! Saying Goodbye to a Heinous Year.

 2020! 

This year should always be punctuated with an exclamation point. It's a year we thought would be the end for us in so many ways, but somehow we survived. How lucky we are. 

All our family members who contracted Covid-19 this year have survived and remain healthy. We have been masking and isolating and socially distancing since mid-March, and the area hospitals are currently filled to capacity and nearly 0% ICU beds are available. The paper says ambulances are now circling for hours sometimes searching for a hospital with a vacant bed. In a word: frightening.

On a brighter note, we're happy the election is over and all the attempts to overturn its results have failed. Better days are ahead of us.

The single best thing to happen personally is the addition to our family of a furry little daughter. She's a Maltipoo and came to live with us on Father's Day weekend this year. Welcome to our world, Princess MoMo Moonpie!

So, goodbye 2020! I will make no resolutions for the new year because I can't stand expectations and setting unrealistic goals. In the words of a certain dictator-wannabe, "It is what it is."

The Los Angeles Times had an interesting two-page spread in their OpEd section Sunday that illustrates this wild ride of a year. Here's a link.

LA Times - Roller Coaster Year

Be well and healthy. Stay safe. Eat your vegetables.

-Your bear trekker...

Sidewalk Sentiment

1/1/20 - Happy New Year, and welcome to 2020.
My wish for this new year is that the world stops its descent into autocracy and fascism. Whatever has been in the water lately, it's caused a lot of countries to flip out and install leaders with mad dictator tendencies. Let's steer the ship away from those rapids and remember our history lessons. That way never ends well.

Looking for LUCA 

(our Latest Universal Common Ancestor)

Finally, a use for old genes.

PBS Digital Studios' Looking for LUCA

People are abandoning Facebook

I have a feeling Facebook is going to get a little crazy in the next year or so with political tempers flaring. I may post here since no one reads this anyway. It might be a good way to keep my friends and family from disowning me. Perhaps? We shall see.

Remind me: who owns Blogger? And are they Zuckerburg-like in any way?

Here's to peace in 2020.

Bob Dylan Comes Through In A Big Way

Dylan Speech

Wow! Lovers of music, songwriting, literature, storytelling, you owe it to yourself to listen to Bob Dylan's acceptance speech recorded for the Nobel Committee. 

Goodbye Legion of Super-Heroes

Everyone can use a little help surviving adolescence, especially gay kids in rural America's Land of Homophobia. You have a secret. It's a secret identity. It's the real you under the mask. As with the heroes you discovered in comic books it's an important part of you that -- under fear of violence or expulsion or rejection -- can never be revealed to the public or sometimes even to the loved ones closest to you. You never know how unconditional love will be, so you keep this hidden identity and hope for the best. You try not to live in too much fear as you grow up and get away to a better place. "Holy I Belong On Krypton, Batman." Or better yet, "Holy Where Was Dan Savage When I Needed Him, Batman!"

Some hero characters in the realm of comics resonate and give comfort in this life situation. The ones most cited are the "X-Men." Outcast mutants, they are hated and mistrusted by the very world they've sworn to save. What a dilemma, right? Save the world that hates you? Sounds familiar. None of these characters were openly gay decades ago but the subtext was written large for any put-upon group that identified with them.

The heroes who helped me survive my own growing up in the Land of Homophobia back in the &*#'s were the "Legion of Super-Heroes." They're considered a minor branch of the DC Universe, living 1,000 years in the future of whenever you're reading this. For example, in 1969 they lived in the year 2969. (Not that I was even born yet, but I read things.) Nowadays, they live in the year 3013. Inspired by the legend of Superboy from their ancient history lessons these super-powered teens from planets all across the universe gathered to fight the good fight, defeat evil, save the world, basically do good wherever they could. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legion_of_Super-Heroes

They also took the name "Legion" seriously. The cast of heroes was enormous. No story could easily incorporate all of them at once because there were so many. And their powers teetered on the absurd: for example, Matter-Eater Lad came from the planet Bismoll and he could eat and digest any substance, like a criminal's gun, perhaps, or he could eat a way out of a trap. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matter-Eater_Lad

The secret identity thing didn't seem as important in the future. None of these kids with the wacky powers seemed to hide their true identity. Was this a sign of hope? That someday in the far-flung future identities wouldn't need to stay hidden? The future looked bright. 

In West Hollywood, geeky comic culture may seem far removed. Unless, that is, you note that all the gym-toned, buff muscle bodies walking around Santa Monica Blvd. would be right at home illustrated in the pages of the comics. Just add capes. Wouldn't the West Hollywood Sneer™be deployed if one even mentioned a love of -- gasp -- comics? Maybe not.

Shortly after we moved here I was walking home from the gym one day and ran into our handsome neighbor guy across the street watering his apartment building's plants. He was a great guy who always pitched in to help around his building and volunteered for the neighborhood watch. I stopped to chat a moment and noticed the tattoo on his forearm. 

"Is that Star Boy?" I asked. It sure looked like the bearded, crew-cut Star Boy in the stars-on-black costume from the 70s to me. 

Neighbor hunk dropped his hose and told me he had sworn to marry the first gay man who knew that. It was a sweet thought but I'm taken was my reply.  Forever after that he was known to us as "Star Boy." And he eventually added Wildfire and Dawnstar to his body. Invisible Kid? May be there already but I didn't inquire.

So, geeks live among us and some of them fly their geek flag proudly. 

But the main reason I bring up this subject is this: last week DC ended the Legion comics title. Nothing has been the same since the New 52 reboot of the entire DC lineup but Legion has been so poorly written and drawn and the mythology messed up so much that I can't say I'm really sad that it's ending. As with everything in comics, nothing ever really dies forever. They bring back heroes all the time, and I'm certain these beloved characters will enjoy a resurrection in the future. I just hope it's not a thousand years in the future.

Long live the Legion!