Recently

I really don't know where I've been, but how have I never read anything by Edmund White?? Currently whipping through "The Farewell Symphony", which is more or less his memoir of gay life from the 60s to the 90s. White fucked his way through these years with a few thousand partners, while struggling to be recognized as a writer. Taking place alternately in New York, Rome and Paris, this book serves as an elegy to the exuberant and joyous gay world that was destroyed by the onset of AIDS. His turns of phrase are gorgeous, the images fresh, and his prose simply slays me. I haven't read anything in awhile that excited me as much as his writing does. And not just because of the super-graphic sex scences.

Back to Montreal on Monday night for a few days. I am determined this time to actually see something of this city besides the inside of a printing plant, and the crappy restaurants in Boucherville (i.e. the suburb where the plant is located 20 minutes outside of the city). I keep reading about Montreal and hearing nothing but fabulous things. This month's Gourmet magazine is devoted entirely to the city, and got me all worked up about experiencing it properly. Thus, me staying an extra day in a schmancy hotel with a fireplace en suite in Vieux Montreal... Me and Montreal: we have a crush on each other, but we don't know each other that well. My elusive lover and I are gonna get busy this time around.

I went on an internet date with my friend last night as a last-minute escort. It was her first time meeting someone from the online, and while she was fine going alone, I happened to tag along at the last minute for the hell of it. He seemed like a very nice, pretty hot boy. I had to keep my mouth shut because I was trying not to ask too many questions of him -- after all, it was her damn date! Anyway, it was a success and they will be going out again (sans the escort service.) I've done the internet dating on and off for a few years, where I try it for a while, get horribly annoyed/disappointed/indifferent, get off line for a few months to just "live my life" and meet someone "normally", then realize that since I don't hang in bars so much any more and am older that it's harder to meet someone, get back online, etc. etc. repeat cycle indefinitely...Frankly, it's a lot of energy and work to meet someone, and I want it to be easier. Fat frickin' chance. The internet dating makes sense to me intellectually, and I know that it has worked for plenty of friends, but in practice I find it a real pain in the ass. Ah well. Of course, I have plans for a date with another new one sometime next week....

Big excitement over here on Calyer St, as The Haas makes her way back to residency on this block, specifically on the 4th floor of my building starting April 1. Am very excited to have her as a fully moved-in upstairs neighbor, instead of just as the de facto mayor of Franklin Street, and the offical cat/house sitter for Apt 1L, (plus the rest of Greenpoint.)

Could Dolly Parton be more genius? Probably not. And for that matter, how about Ray Charles' Genius + Soul = Jazz album? Dug this gem out of the vinyl yesterday, after not hearing it for a few years. Damn. Brother Ray will always be THE Genius.