[CalifFitnessSwimmer]

I've already queued the BBC "Christopher and his Kind" movie and "Chris and Don" on Netflix. Thanks for the info.

I know someone who writes history books who called Isherwood once years ago. He just picked up the phone and there was "Herr Ishyvoo" on the phone.

My first gay bar experience happened to be in Berlin more than 30 years ago -- this was before the Berlin Wall came down. It was a summer studying German and Berlin was this odd place where most people didn't want to live but it attracted all kinds of gays and other outcasts living cheaply and outrageously. So my first experience of out, outrageous homosexuality was with German speaking Berliners, although this was before I had seen Cabaret and read Isherwood. By day it was sausages and incredible German pastries and by night it was steins of beer and kinky sex bars with kind of the "Kit-Kat" vibe.

On a slightly different note I regretted that I was in L.A. while there was a restrospective of Hockney's paintings but I didn't find out until the exhibit was over. I couldn't believe I missed that one, oh well.

Remember when it seemed like it was possible to read every "gay" book and see every "gay" movie? The gay world seemed smaller and part of it had such a literary vibe. Someone told me even Fire Island was kind of a quiet artist sort of place before it turned into a drugged, partying nightclub scene. It's kind of a shame young gay guys only encounter the bar scene and associate that with young gay life. I was living in Greenwich Village when Auden was still alive and had his apartment in the East Village. For some reason Auden and Isherwood went different ways after being so close when they were younger.

I suppose gay studies majors are the only ones who read these writers.

P.S. You can delete duplicate messages -- I made the same mistake.