2017-11-25

Yukio Mishima’s Death Poem

Masurao ga
Tabasamu tachi no
sayanari ni
Ikutose taete
Kyo no hatsushimo

The sheaths of swords rattle
As after years of endurance
Brave men set out
To tread upon the first frost of the year.
—Yukio Mishima

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Born

0084 BCE -

CATULLUS aka Gaius Valerius Catullus, Roman poet of the 1^st century BCE born (d: 54 BCE); His love poetry was never surpassed in ancient times, and influenced a great many poets, both ancient and modern.

Tibullus, Propertius, Horace and Ovid imitated his techniques, and, during the English Renaissance, English poets such as Ben Jonson and Robert Herrick attempted to capture the quality of Catullus (unsuccessfully) in English. Most of Catullus’s poems are short; in a few concise lines he is able to create an experience of love, friendship, or sometimes bitterness and anger either at his mistress (whom he called “Lesbia”) or at some person he despised.

Although most of his poems are about heterosexual love, a good number of them are devoted to the love of boys. These are particularly lusty, some of them very funny, and all of them explicitly sexual. (Since many editions of Catullus prudishly omit these poems, and since almost all translations are severely bowdlerized, only one edition in translation is recommended, that by Peter Whigham.) In one poem, the poet comes upon a young boy “stuffing his girl.” With a wink to Venus, he “stuffs” the boy as “poetic justice.” Since Catullus was a contemporary of Caesar, his pederastic poetry is characterized by the basic prejudice of the period: “taking” a boy is a manly act, but allowing another man to do unto you what you did unto him is sheer depravity.

1946 -

GIANNI VERSACE, Italian fashion designer born (d. 1997); An Italian designer of both clothing and theater costumes, Versace was influenced by Andy Warhol, Ancient Roman and Greek art as well as modern abstract art; he is considered one of the most colorful and talented designers of the late 20^th century.

Gianni Versace met Antonio D’Amico, a model, in 1982. The couple embarked on a long-term relationship that lasted 11 years, until Versace's untimely death.

During that time Antonio worked as designer for the Versace sports line. Versace's will left his male partner D'Amico with a pension of 50 million lire (about $26,000) a month (for life), and the right to live in any of Versace's homes in Italy and the United States. D'Amico now runs his own fashion design company.

One July morning in the summer of 1997, returning from his customary walk on Ocean Drive, Versace was gunned down outside his ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach, Florida. He was murdered by gay spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide shortly after the murder. Versace was buried in Lake Como, Italy

1952 -

DAVID CARTER was an author and historian on LGBTQ civil rights born on this date (d: 2020); He is credited with writing the definitive book about the 1969 Stonewall riots that he said triggered a worldwide “mass movement” for LGBTQ rights. Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution, was published in 2004, when a younger generation might not have fully appreciated how oppressive life was for gay men and women in the New York of the 1960s. Mr. Carter conjured the times bluntly.

Shortly after his Stonewall book was published, Carter began work on what he considered his next major project – a definitive biography of gay rights pioneer Frank Kameny, the co-founder of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C. in the early 1960s. For more than 10 years, Carter conducted extensive research on Kameny’s role as one of the first known pre-Stonewall activists who declared homosexuals to be a minority group deserving of full civil rights.

Carter was born and raised in the Southeast Georgia town of Jesup. He graduated from the town’s Wayne County High School before attending Emory University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and French.

During his junior year in college he studied at the Sorbonne University in France. He later attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he earned a master’s degree in 1978 in South Asian Studies. He first became involved in the gay rights movement while a graduate student in Madison. Among other things, Carter organized a 1977 dance that raised more than $1,000 to support a Dade County, Fla., gay rights group that was fighting a campaign by anti-gay advocate Anita Bryant to overturn the Florida county’s gay rights law.

A short time later, Carter co-founded an organization in Madison that led a successful effort to prevent anti-gay advocates from overturning Madison’s gay rights law, making Madison one of the few places in the country in the late 1970s and early 1980s to stop an effort to repeal a pro-LGBTQ nondiscrimination law.

Carter later became involved in the successful lobbying effort that made Wisconsin the first state in the nation to pass a law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation.

He moved to New York City in 1985 shortly before starting work as an editor at Chelsea House Publishers, a publisher of young adult multicultural books. Chelsea accepted a proposal by Carter that it publish two separate book series for young adults, “Issues in Gay and Lesbian Life” and “Lives of Notable Gay Men and Lesbians.”

After leaving Chelsea House, Carter began work on the Stonewall book and a separate book consisting of a collection of interviews of famed gay poet Allen Ginsberg that was later published as “Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews 1958-1996.”

In 2014, Carter served as the historic adviser to the National Park Service in the successful effort to have the Stonewall site become a National Monument.

He died May 1 at his Greenwich Village apartment in New York City. He was 67.

1954 -

DAN BUTLER, American actor, born; American actor known for his role as Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe on the long-running TV series Frasier as well as "D-pop" on the television show "Handsworth High." Butler was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Openly Gay, he starred in Terrence McNally's 1989 play The Lisbon Traviata and wrote an off-Broadway play about his life, The Only Thing Worse You Could Have Told Me..., which derives its title from a comment Butler's father allegedly made when Dan came out to him.

Butler is married to producer Richard Waterhouse.

Died

1957 -

Someone please give Han Solo a heads up: Among the other ''wisecrackers'' (1920s slang for "Gay") in early silent era Hollywood was one HARRISON FORD (b: 1884), who was reported going on a costume-buying spree for actress Norma Talmadge and being "as enthusiastic as a young debutante planning her first party dress."

Oh snap!

Harrison Ford, the silent film star, first appeared in pictures in 1915 and went on to star with many of best-known actors and actresses of his day, including Clara Bow, Wally Reid and sisters Constance and Norma Talmadge.

Long before Han Solo and Indiana Jones made Harrison Ford a household name the earlier Harrison Ford was known as a reliable leading man. A 1927 story in the Los Angeles Times noted that many for many of his parts "a winning personality was all that was essential."

Among those roles, Ford played a Latin lover in "Proud Flesh" (1925) which was directed by King Vidor. "Few actors have played with as many prominent picture stars as Harrison Ford," noted a 1928 article on Ford's "return to the legitimate stage." "The first pictures in which he gained great public favor were comedies in which he acted opposite Constance Talmadge."

The actor rarely gave interviews and only talked about his professional, not private, life, so little is known of his background. An article states that he left school at fourteen to join a stock company, working his way up from stagehand to bit player. "A rather serious, secretive chap", one reporter called him. "The Hermit of Hollywood" soon became his nickname. "When discussing a question", wrote journalist William McKegg, "Mr. Ford has the trick of looking far away, or down on the ground, or glancing behind him, as though he might find the explanation in any of these directions." Harrison himself complained, "What I can't make out, though, is what you people see in any of us [actors] interesting enough to keep writing about."

If Harrison had any romance, it remained unreported. The few private glimpses into his life involved his love of gardening and his large collection of books, many of them first editions. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the 6600 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

Born

1977 -

DR. ROBERT GARCIA, born on this date, is an educator and the 28th Mayor of Long Beach. He was re-elected to a second term by almost 80% of the vote in 2018.

Garcia immigrated to the United States at age 5 and was raised in Southern California. He is a college and university educator, holds an M.A. from the University of Southern California and an Ed.D. in Higher Education from Cal State Long Beach, where he also earned his B.A. in Communication.

Mayor Garcia has focused on making the City of Long Beach a leader in education, economic development, and climate protection. As Mayor, he has championed progressive education policy, launched an aggressive climate plan, supported workers by increasing the minimum wage and fought to expand and protect rights for women, immigrants, and the LGBTQ community.

He has proposed and passed ten ballot initiatives since 2014. They include measures to support safety and infrastructure, a cannabis tax, and reforms to strengthen the city auditor, set term limits, and create ethics and redistricting commissions. His signature initiative, Measure A, has launched the largest infrastructure repair program in a generation.

Mayor Garcia currently serves as a Board Member on the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) representing much of South East Los Angeles County.

He is married to Matthew Mendez Garcia, a professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach

1978 -

NELLY FURTADO, the Canadian bisexual singer, was born in Victoria, British Columbia as Nelly Kim Furtado. Her hits include: I'm like a bird (2001), Hey, Man! (2002), Powerless (2003), Try (2004), Explode (2004), Maneater (2006)

Died

1987 -

On this date the American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist JAMES BALDWIN died in the South of France (b. 1924). Most of Baldwin's work dealt with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century in the United States. His novels are notable for the personal way in which they explore questions of identity as well as the way in which they mine complex social and psychological pressures related to being black and homosexual well before the social, cultural or political equality of these groups was improved.

1990 -

On this date the great American composer AARON COPLAND died (b. 1900). A composer of concert and film music, as well as an accomplished pianist, Copland was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition. He was widely known as “the dean of American composers.” Copland's music achieved a balance between modern music and American folk styles. The open, slowly changing harmonies of many of his works are said to evoke the vast American landscape. He also incorporated percussive orchestration, changing meter, polyrhythms, polychords and tone rows in a broad range of works for concert hall, theater, ballet, and films. Aside from composing, Copland was a teacher, lecturer, critic, writer, and conductor (generally, but not always) of his own works.

Noteworthy

1997 -

On this date DAVID CATANIA became the first openly gay or Lesbian person to be elected to the city council of Washington, D.C. Catania was elected as a Republican but left the party during the George W. Bush administration in protest of the right-ward, anti-Gay takeover the GOP. He's now an independent. Catania would go on to author, sponsor and shepherd through the key legislation that legalized same-sex marriage in the nation's capital in 2010.

2018 -

Today is the first day of HANNUKAH. Hannukah is a Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of the second temple in Jerusalem (there is a transliteration also romanized as as Chanukah or Ḥanukah) at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. It is also known as the Festival of Lights and the Feast of Dedication, and this year it falls on December 2.

The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, called a Hannuakkah menorah (or hanukkah). One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shamash (Hebrew: שמש‎, "attendant"). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the holiday. Other Hanukkah festivities include playing dreidel and eating oil-based foods such as latkes and sufganiyot, and dairy foods. Since the 1970s, the worldwide Chabad Hasidic movement has initiated public menorah lightings in open public places in many countries

White Crane Institute

2017-11-25

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