What do speedo lovers fear the most (aged)

[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.

[Torchwatch]

The first time i read Stephen Spender's The Temple was before I had had any kind of gay experience and although I found the book a good read I didn't fully understand it.
The freedom he found in pre war Germany compared to Britain where homosexual acts were banned was extraordinary (I realised when i reread the book). Then he returned to Germany during Hitler's rise to power and found everything changed and frightening.
There was a limited number of gay books because writing them ostracised one from society and could land you in prison.

Alfred Lord Tennyson was gay (at least bi) and wrote In Memoriam at the death of Hallam. Tennyson is Known to have stayed with Lord Conway at Allington Castle and is thought to have written The Brook there. I have found the brook it may be based upon just across the river.
I have even swum in the River Medway there in my Speedos.

Do Speedos and a life jacket look good together?

[Byron]

The Temple was in the coming-of-age genre : the progress of psychological and moral growth from youth to adulthood.

In view of his Jewish background Spender had great conflict in his love of Germany and the rise of fascism. He returned to write there after WW II.

[Byron]

You asked if speedos and a life jacket look good together.

A simple question but it took a lot of finding some detail for readers to judge
(and for me the green speedo guy wins for yumminess).


http://28.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lk...8xn4o1_500.jpg


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lXXqfcuaWg...s+8-4-11-5.jpg

[Byron]

Most interesting that you were in West Berlin pre-reunification and it must have seemed strange to be living there . surrounded by the DDR (and only BEA permitted to fly the corridor for civil air travel I believe).

I was lucky enough meet an old boy last year who was a pilot assigned to the Berlin Airlift of 1949 in his early RAF service - and totally exhausted in those round-the-clock resupply missions to subvert the communist stranglehold, I learned.

I don't know the reasons for the parting of Auden and Isherwood but can understand a nostalgia for the populace and earlier ambiance of places such as Fire Island and Greenwich Village, about which I have read.

A wise friend once said however "Never visit the scene to relive memories of past enjoyable events - you will only be depressed and disappointed".

I think he's right and I recall Ayia Napa Cyprus - today an overdeveloped brash new mass tourism resort - but a place I discovered many years ago (only by me I thought) as a small and idyllic deserted beach of white sand bordering gently lapping clear blue warm and shallow water to swim in.

[Byron]

Most interesting that you were in West Berlin pre-reunification and it must have seemed strange to be living there . surrounded by the DDR (and only BEA permitted to fly the corridor for civil air travel I believe).

I was lucky enough meet an old boy last year who was a pilot assigned to the Berlin Airlift of 1949 in his early RAF service - and totally exhausted in those round-the-clock resupply missions to subvert the communist stranglehold, I learned.

I don't know the reasons for the parting of Auden and Isherwood but can understand a nostalgia for the populace and earlier ambiance of places such as Fire Island and Greenwich Village, about which I have read.

A wise friend once said however "Never visit the scene to relive memories of past enjoyable events - you will only be depressed and disappointed".

I think he's right and I recall Ayia Napa Cyprus - today an overdeveloped brash new mass tourism resort - but a place I discovered many years ago (only by me I thought) as a small and idyllic deserted beach of white sand bordering gently lapping clear blue warm and shallow water to swim in.

[Crail]

Byron, hot damn, you dun good agin. Delicious eye candy. Thanks

[Byron]

LOL - it was hard (and so was I) - I expected at
least to easily find some water skiiers running the
wake (if that's the right term)(tried it once but never
quite graduated to competency on just the single).