This is nothing short of amazing.
A witty and very honest little animated film about AIDS and prevention and leading a good healthy gay life. Survival and overcoming are the central themes. This French PSA is the work of filmmaker Wilfredo Brimo.
Wish I had seen something like this when I was coming out. It’s both funny and realistic.
Brilliant and touching too.
Watch it and enjoy!.
I count myself among the "word-loving, book-besotted" and last night I found my people.
I sat with author and White Crane Institute Advisor, Perry Brass and the Gay Glitterati, last night, at a lovely evening honoring LGBT writers, the annual Publishing Triangle’s Awards presented in the Tishman Auditorium at The New School.
Eight Publishing Triangle Awards were presented to various men and women, including The Randy Shilts Award for Gay Nonfiction, which was awarded to Kenji Yoshino (at the left), for his groundbreaking and important book, Covering. Other nominees in the category were Bernard Cooper for The Bill from My Father and Rigaberto Gonzalez for the beautiful and poetic, Butterfly Boy. 
Nancy Bereano (below right), a frequent Lammy winner, was honored by PT for her two decades of work as the founder and publisher of Firebrand Books, one of the most successful lesbian/feminist presses in the world. The press publishes such titles as Alison Bechdel’s (another honoree last night) Dykes To Watch Out For, Audre Lorde, Dorothy Allison and Barbara Smith. 
Along with Alison Bechdel, who won for Lesbian Nonfiction for her masterful Fun Home, Catherine Friend was nominated for the delightful Hit By A Farm, and Marcia Gallo was acknowledged for Different Daughters, an important history of the Daughters of Bilitis.
Chris Weikel, a founder of the Tosos II Theater Company, received the Robert Chesley Emerging Playwright Award.
Poets Jennifer Rose and Justin Chin won, respectively, for Lesbian and Gay Male poetry. Justin’s Gutted was nominated along with Jim Elledge’s A History of My Tattoo and Greg Hewett’s The Eros Conspiracy. Robin Becker and Kate Lynn Hibbard were nominated for The Domain of Perfect Affection and Sleeping Upside Down, respectively.
Fiction was ably represented in both Men’s and Women’s categories. Rebecca Brown’s The Last Time I Saw You, Lisa Carey’s Every Visible Thing, and Ivan E. Coyote’s Bow Grip in the Lesbian Fiction catergory. Men’s Fiction was acknowledged with Martin Hyatt’s A Scarecrow’s Bible (from Suspect Thoughts), Steven McCauley’s Alternatives to Sex and (the winner) Christopher Bram’s elegial Exiles in America. 
The truly remarkable renaissance man, Eric Bentley (at the left) was recognized for his lifetime (when he mentioned in passing that he was 90, the room gasped!) of writing and activism…critic, playwright, editor, translator of Brecht, chronicler of Oscar Wilde in the play, Lord Alfred’s Lover…Bentley’s comments, which we hope to be able to reproduce here or in the pages of White Crane, reminded everyone present that LGBT people are still the targets of religious fanatics. He spoke of the pivotal roles that "love and death" play in the arts and literature and cautioned that there was still plenty of both in store for LGBT people.
Finally, Andrew Holleran, recent author of Grief, and the fabled Dancer From the Dance, received the Bill Whitehead Award for Lifetime Achievement.
The Publishing Triangle presents the annual Triangle Awards in collaboration with The Ferro-Grumley Literary Awards, the Robert Chesley Foundation and the New School.
Stay tuned…in just over two weeks, we will be reporting onthe 19th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. White Crane Books’ Charmed Lives is a finalist in the Anthology Category.
TODAY’S GAY WISDOM – David & Jonathan
Many of our stories can be found in the great traditions. One of the oldest stories in existence, Gilgamesh & Enkidu is a love story of men. Another is the great love of David & Jonathan found in the Hebrew Tanakh, known as the Old Testament to Christians. The story of David & Jonathan has been retold for centuries. One gorgeous retelling is that of the contemporary poet Steven Schecter, who wrote a beautiful book-length poem titled David & Jonathan: An Epic Poem of Love & Power in Ancient Israel.
Today’s Gay Wisdom is an excerpt from the poem in which Schecter retells the exchange between the lovers told in two verses at the end of the 20th chapter of the book of Samuel. In the book of Samuel the story is recounted as:
41 And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward the South, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed down three times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another, until David exceeded.
41 ‘Go in peace, forasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of HaShem, saying: HaShem shall be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy seed, for ever.’
Schecter’s retelling fills in the unmistakable details of this meeting of lovers:
~ ~ ~
David hears Jonathan’s lonely footsteps
and waits no longer.
Rises.
At once rises.
A diver breaking the water’s surface.
A prisoner his bonds.
A wail its sorrow.
And falls.
Three times rises and falls
until the full-length lover has turned
to a howl in the dust.
Jonathan stares like a bronze,
surprised at the derelict hands
encircling his feet.
They knew it could come to this,
would come,
David more than he,
but knowing the future is sometimes
like knowing the past,
the battle dates mere numbers
to reveal a tale of hope and ruin;
one is therefore well advised to sound one’s heart
before entering history.
Even a priest listens
before dashing blood against the altar.
But not David,
who picks up people like war campaigns
and figured it all as the calculus of God’s grace.
Jonathan does not approve,
has never approved,
has more than once told him he misreads his own heart,
but has come to appreciate
that his lover, like a caterpillar,
only learns by shedding his mistakes;
and so ought not to be surprised.
And yet is.
The man’s pain is so great
it cracks the ground on which he kneels
and runs the fault line to Jonathan’s heart
that weeps, weeps,
for this poor tumbleweed of love.
It is all he can do to pull the man up.
His cries screech against the air,
are gone,
again rise up,
a mad assault on a sponge.
Jonathan hugs David close,
his lips on his neck, in his ear,
murmuring the prayer for ex-lovers:
"God Almighty, let him not fall by the wayside,
not rot in despair,
not spit on hope.
May he remember life is long,
and that I love him;"
and with the hand that caressed him to the tailbone
rubbed the prayer into his bones.
Quiet limped into David’s body.
His sobs grew less and turned to tears
that flowed over the prince’s shoulders,
wet, warm watermarks of love
that mingled with kisses;
and the kisses soon drew forth an embrace,
and one embrace drew forth another,
until David,
as tradition would later have it,
exceeded.
And then Jonathan sent him off
in peace as they had sworn,
tongue to tongue
and seed to seed
as God was their witness.
And when David could no longer be seen,
Jonathan also turned his back
and returned to the city of kings.from Stephen Schecter’s David & Jonathan published by Robert Davies Publishing.
~ ~ ~
This entry was also this day’s Gay Wisdom email.
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Today is the birthday of poet, memoirist, & novelist
May Sarton (1912-1995)
Best known for her novel, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaid Singing, Sarton also wrote over 15 books of poetry, more than 20 books of fiction and over ten memoirs.
Her novel, Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaid Singing is considered a classic for its frank writing about her life as a Lesbian. In her Journal of Solitude (1973) she wrote that "The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to write Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing, to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive, to portray a homosexual who is neither pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality."
~ ~ ~
TODAY’S GAY WISDOM
Andrew Ramer, author of "Two Flutes Playing: A Spiritual Journeybook for Gay Men" and the Praxis column in each issue of White Crane, knew and corresponded with May Sarton for many years. We asked Andrew to recommend one of her works for inclusion in this Gay Wisdom message. With no hesitation he recommended Sarton’s poem, "The Great Transparencies." Thanks Andrew!
The Great Transparencies by May Sarton
Lately I have been thinking much of those,
The open ones, the great transparencies,
Through whom life–is it wind or water?–flows
Unstinted, who have learned the sovereign ease.
They are not young; they are not ever young.Youth is too vulnerable to bear the tide,
And let it rise, and never hold it back,
Then let it ebb, not suffering from pride,
Nor thinking it must ebb from private lack.
The elders yield because they are so strong–Seized by the great wind like a ripening field,
All rippled over in a sensuous sweep,
Wave after wave, lifted and glad to yield,
But whether wind or water, never keep
The tide from flowing or hold it back for long.Lately I have been thinking much of these,
The unafraid although still vulnerable,
Through whom life flows, the great transparencies,
The old and open, brave and beautiful . . .
They are not young; they are not ever young.
~ ~ ~
"But what is becoming tiresome now in the American ethos, is the emphasis on sex, and especially on orgasm as an end in itself. Let us think more about what enriches life; to put it in the metaphorical form, let us think about flowers and animals in a new way. A sensitized person who feels himself at peace with nature and with the natural man in him is no going to be troubled about sex.
It will have its day and its hour and the orgasm, should it occur, will come not as a little trick cleverly performed, but as a wave of union with the whole universe. The emphasis on orgasm per se is just another example of the devaluation of all that is human."
May Sarton, from her Journal of A Solitude
~ ~ ~
This entry was also this day’s Gay Wisdom email.
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A beautiful presentation of Sacred Stories.
White Crane is committed to creating and supporting community among Gay men…and your subscriptions and tax deductible donations make it possible…
We have done this through the publishing of White Crane Journal for the past 18 years and have expanded that publishing into keeping classic books of Gay Wisdom and Culture in print through White Crane Books. In 2006 we began the Gay Men’s Health Leadership Academy in partnership with the late Eric Rofes, and have continued it under the able guidance of Chris Bartlett.
The most recent collaboration has been with Salt Lake City therapist and social worker, Jerry Buie, MSW and his Queer Spirit Retreats at Windwalker Ranch. The second of these, a sponsored project of White Crane Institute, was held just this past weekend. Here are some of the comments from those who attended:
"The weekend was well worth the effort to experience not only new friends, but re-experience one’s self."
"The retreat helped me to clarify my own personal vision and have a very peaceful experience with a great group of gay guys." 
"Thank you for creating a spiritual atmosphere where I could learn about myself, where I could connect with Nature, where I could pull from the Spirits of this universe. I am now more connected as a gay man, to myself and where I can love others."
"Above all thanks. I have come to the understanding that Mormonism is a "story." I have the right to make my story for my life."
"If you’ve ever been interested in exploring Native traditions or gaining a better understanding of your spirituality, this is the retreat for you. The facilitators are sincere, caring and patient. Windwalker Ranch is magical."
For more information, or to register to attend future Queer Spirit Retreats, contact Jerry Buie at Pride Counseling in Salt Lake City at 801-557-9203 or jerrybuie@mac.com
Thirty Seven Ways to be Seductive with a Man by Perry Brass
One of my prime feelings lately is that too many gay men have lost the talent of being seductive—that is, understanding how to invite intimacy. A generation or two ago, it seemed to go with the territory. Maybe too many of us had seen too many old movies and knew the moves that the stars of old used, to keep them stars—but seduction I feel has become a lost art, but one which with a little practice we can bring back again. One of the sad things about this lack of seduction is that once we have lost seduction, we have also lost a lot of the way toward intimacy with each other—sexual, emotional, and otherwise.
So to reacquaint you with it, I offer 37 ways to be seductive.
1) Repeat his name after you hear it. Then say, “I like your name.” Even if you don’t and his name is Jerky McSmirk, say it. Then smile a bit, but make sure he does not feel that you are laughing at him.
2) Ask him what he does with his time that is important to him. Almost every man loves to talk about his work, and even if he doesn’t he will have something that he likes to do with his time and is waiting for someone to ask.
3) Keep his hand in yours for more than moment, but not long enough to embarrass him if he is embarrassed by public displays of affection.
4) Touch him behind the ear or neck. Very gently.
5) Get close enough to him that he can smell your breath, and make sure that your breath is worth smelling.
6) Tell you like . . . the way he smells, his skin feels, his eyes look—something completely personal.
7) Invite him to sit down with you.
8) Invite him to stand up, go to the bar, go outside for a breath of air; anything, just invite him to do it, so he knows you are including him in your plans.
9) Ask him how he feels. And repeat the question often. In most of “normal” life, no one cares how men feel. It is considered uncool to ask. Don’t be afraid of being uncool. Cool is for kids. Warm is for men.
10) Ask him to taste what you are drinking. And then smile.
11) Offer to buy him a drink. Or, if not a drink, then something else. Don’t offer this to reciprocate for something he has already done; make it a freewill offering. If it is simply tit-for-tat (whatever the hell that means), it loses a lot of its seductive power and even your tit may start to pale compared to his tat.
12) If you offer him a business card (and people do nowadays), write something on the back of it that is personal, even if it’s just your signature and “call.”
13) Touch his hair or forehead lightly with your fingers and smile while you’re doing this.
14) Sophia Loren was once asked who was the most seductive man she had ever met. “Cary Grant. We met on a plane. What struck me immediately was how he smelled, with a very subtle citrus cologne, and how nice his manners were. So many men use bad manners to seduce, and that’s bad.”
Learn something from that.
15) Wherever you are, find an excuse to invite him outside for a moment. Then enjoy the fact that the two of you are breathing the same air without a lot of other people breathing it.
16) Invite him to your—whatever. Apartment, palatial estate in Hoboken, hotel room, or even the curb where your car is parked, or the curb next to the subway entrance. But make sure he knows this invitation comes from you.
17) Ask him out for something. If he asks if this is a “date,” say, “No, but I just thought we’d get to know each other and have fun.”
18) There is nothing so seductive as a man who knows when to laugh at the right time. Never laugh at him, unless of course the whole situation at some point becomes so absurd that even while laughing at him, you are really laughing at yourself.
19) At some point make sure that your cheek is close to his. You can do this by getting close enough to him to whisper into his ear. There is something tingling and nice about having someone whisper into your ear anyway, but having your cheek next to his cheek means that you are inviting intimacy, something that most men find appealing, even if they are not capable of doing it themselves.
20) When he shows up at your apartment, tell him how much nicer he looks without a lot of people around him.
21) Don’t expect him to sit next to you his first time in your “space”; allow him to have some other alternative seating. And don’t take offense if he does not sit with you. He may be too shy to plump down next to you when he hardly knows you.
22) But this should not keep you from approaching him and smiling.
23) Always offer a man something to eat. It may be light, but it should have some texture to it. If he’s nervous at your first meeting, having something like celery or carrots around for munchies can be good. Don’t just offer him a drink. Although “liquor is quicker,” it often makes men feel out of control.
24) Sex and intimacy are great appetite suppressants, which is probably the reason why so many people are over-weight now: they don’t get enough of either. So if things heat up, dinner can wait.
25) Admire something he’s wearing, then tell him, smiilng, how much better he might look without it.
26) Don’t jump all over him. Let him have a moment to enjoy the intimacy of physical closeness with you. Sexual dysfunction is now on the rise, and part of that may be that people expect too much to happen too fast, in an already stressful work-driven culture. So no matter what “deed” happens, enjoy the fact that he is there enjoying you.
27) Ask him, “Is there anything we can do that would make you more comfortable?” If he hesitates, then tell him what would you more comfortable.
28) Try taking off your shoes, and then his.
29) Massage his shoulders. Most men carry huge tension in them. Use a light touch, and don’t try to do anything unexpected that would surprise or bother him.
30) Point out something around the apartment or space that interests you, and talk about it in a way that can bring him into the picture. (“Do you have anything like that? What do you usually show your friends?”)
31) Turn the music to something that is soft, no matter what your taste in sound is. Never make either of you talk over the music, and if the news is on turn it off.
32) Bring out some pictures to look at it. And invite him to sit closer to you.
33) When you are sitting closer, have at least one part of your body (an elbow, knee, hand, or shoulder) touch his.
34) If you offer him something to eat, give him a moment to try it without being all over him. Seduction requires a moment for him to enjoy being near you without you being aggressive about it. So, draw away from him for a moment while he eats. Or drinks.
35) If you feel that he is withdrawing from you (and sometimes this happens from nerves or self-consciousness), then take a breather. Don’t get into his face, but back off a bit, and then come back with (in a nice, non-threatening way): “What’s your day been like?” Get him to talk. Again, most men are never asked about their feelings or themselves unless it has to do with work and is done in a threatening or challenging way. So the fact that you are not asking in a threatening way is wonderful.
36) Touch his shoulders gently. And then work your way up to his ear or face: gently. Kiss him, but not on the lips. Now start to touch his chest, and unbutton a button or two. After unbuttoning a few buttons, stop, kiss him, then begin unbuttoning or removing more.
37) Once things get down to bare skin, tell him you did not expect him to look so good with his clothes off. And then say, “I really like your shoulders (or chest, or neck, or arms, or . . . ). Most men love having their bodies complimented. And, if he does have a great body, and it’s too obvious that he’s spent time on it, tell him, “You should keep your clothes off all the time.” In other words, you are not so foolishly “cool” and self-involved that you are going to ignore something that means a lot to him.
These are only 37 ways: there are about 100 more, but these are a good start.
Today’s the birthday of
Lorenz Hart (1895), lyricist half of the famed Rodgers & Hart team.
Hart struggled with his homosexuality, which was a carefully guarded secret for most of his life. But what he left us was the most amazingly witty, lyrics in songwriting.
His lyrics include the classics "Blue Moon", "Isn’t It Romantic?", "The Lady is a Tramp", "Manhattan", "Thou Swell", "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered", and "My Funny Valentine" and one of my favorites, the lyrical tongue-twister of a treat, "I Wish I Were in Love Again":
I Wish I Were in Love Again, Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
The sleepless nights,
The daily fights,
The quick toboggan when you reach the heights—
I miss the kisses and I miss the bites.
I wish I were in love again!
The broken dates,
The endless waits,
The lovely loving and the hateful hates,
The conversation with the flying plates—
I wish I were in love again!
No more pain,
No more strain,
Now I’m sane, but …
I would rather be gaga!
The pulled-out fur of cat and cur,
The fine mismating of a him and her—
I’ve learned my lesson, but I
Wish I were in love again.
The furtive sigh,
The blackened eye,
The words ‘I’ll love you till the day I die’,
The self-deception that believes the lie—
I wish I were in love again.
When love congeals
It soon reveals
The faint aroma of performing seals,
The double-crossing of a pair of heels.
I wish I were in love again!
No more care.
No despair.
I’m all there now,
But I’d rather be punch-drunk!
Believe me, sir,
I much prefer
The classic battle of a him and her.
I don’t like quiet and I
Wish I were in love again!
Although his lyrics usually dealt with such standard "boy-meets-girl" fare, his own sentiments seem to creep up in a few of his songs, like "Zip" from "Pal Joey" and "Come with Me" from the musical "The Boys from Syracuse" in which Hart exults in the life of the "bachelor" and the freedom to commit the little "sin" away from condemning eyes.
Come with Me, Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Come with me
Where the food is free
Where the landlord never comes near you
Be a guest in a house of rest
Where the best of fellows can cheer you.
There’s your own little room
So cool, not too much light
Where you’re one man for whom
No wife waits up at night
When day ends
You have lots of friends
Who will guard you well while you slumber
Safe from battle and strife
Safe from the wind and gale
Come with me to jailYou’ll never have to fetch the milk
Or walk the dog at early dawn
There’s no -"Get up- you’re late for work!"
While you rest in the pearly dawn
You’re never bored by politics
You’re privileged to miss a row
Of tragedies by Sophocles
And diatribes by Cicero
Your brother’s wife will never come
On Sunday noon to bring to you
Her little son who plays the lute,
Her little girl to sing to you
You can commit you little "sin"
And relatives won’t yell "Fie!"
You needn’t take the annual trip
To the oracle at Delphi
You snore and swear and stretch and yawn
In this, your strictly male house
The only way that sinners go to Heaven
Is in the jailhouse!
For more on Lorenz Hart, visit the Lorenz Hart Website!
http://www.lorenzhart.org/
This entry was also this day’s Gay Wisdom email.
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Fellow Travelers Exhibit Run Extended
Because of the move, this week, at the new, green Chicago Center on Halsted, the White Crane sponsored photography exhibit, Fellow Travelers: Liberation Portraits by Mark Thompson has been extended at the New York Lesbian, Gay Bisexual & Transgender Community center on 13th Street. If you haven’t seen this wonderful show of 15 black and white portraits of beautiful Gay men, by all means drop by the Center and take it in. The exhibit will be at the Center, 208 W. 13th Street for another two weeks.
This Sigur Rós video is pretty stunning.
Sigur Rós, the Icelandic band is known for their ethereal multi-layered music (they were an enormous influence on Radiohead’s Thom York), has produced a stunner here.
The video for the song titled "Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása" from their album Ágætis byrjun present a stunning series of images telling a very old story about gay being and the array of social and religious constraints against natural love.
The lyrics are in a homemade language created by the band, they call it Hopelandic and consider it their form of their native tongue. The title has been translated as "Good Weather for Airstrikes" and was named after that phrase which was said by a weatherman during the Kosovo war. It’s interesting to have this video attached to what is clearly an anti-war song.
Very moving. A bit long but there were moments that left me speechless.
