Chamblee54

Men On Men 2 is the “Second in this series, which ran from 1987 until 2001. This volume collects short fiction from 1988. Many reflect the writers’ responses to the emerging issues to which AIDS gave rise.” The MOM series turned up in an Underground Atlanta bookstore in the early nineties. I was working in an architect’s office, and had a cheap apartment. My low budget lifestyle could afford $12.00 for a paperback book of short stories. MOM2 was published in 1988, when AIDS dominated to discourse. Thirty plus years later, this is good for a re-read, while waiting for something better from the library. This exercise today is a collection of drabbles … 100 words, written more or less at random, and what some of the stories do for me.
The age of Anxiety David Fienberg
David is an eighties New York queen. Richard is his best friend, who is moving to San Francisco in two days, without a job, apartment, or boyfriend. David has herpes and anal warts, and will die in 1994. David broke up with Richard in 1982 because the latter had “persistently swollen lymph glands under his arms and in his groin.” Nobody seems to enjoy good mental health, which probably was going on before the virus hit. 36 years later, I am running the gauntlet of tests and catheterization, and the only casualty so far is my sense of well being.
Solidarity Albert Innaurato
Some fat queens, with names like La Golgotha and La Pincushionova go to the New York pride parade in 1985. At the time, Pat Buchanan was a headline performer on anti-fag duty. Google is reluctant to share quotes from that time, but did have a delicious tidbit. … Hunter S. Thompson mentioned Pat Buchanan in a 1973 letter. “We disagree so violently on almost everything that it’s a real pleasure to drink with him. If nothing else, he’s absolutely honest in his lunacy — and I’ve found, during my admittedly limited experience in political reporting, that power & honesty very rarely coincide.”
Snapshot Allen Barnett
There are different ways to spell Allen. Allen Barnett had two L’s and an e, just like Hell, and Allen Ginsberg. Allen Barnett died August 17, 1991. This was a little over a year before Alan Burnette died. Alan lived in a house, with an oak tree. Neither survived mcmansionization. My first grade teacher, Connie Carswell, lived in that house. Both Allen and Alan had AIDS. … In Snapshot, this queen tells a recently departed bf that there was a letter from the bf’s mystery father. The bitch just wanted to get the youngun to come over to his apartment.
Ayor David Leavitt
David Leavitt was quite the fag-lit sensation in the eighties. The Lost Language of Cranes was published in 1986, when he was 25. This is about the same time AYOR, his story in MOM2, was written. DL (no middle name) somehow survived the next forty years. In a bit of due diligence, I went to his twitter page, @David_Leavitt The picture you see is a screen shot, announcing that DL has been blocked by @realDonaldTrump. Trump derangement is boring. Getting back to the initials, DL has come to mean Down Low, or thinking that nobody knows what you are up to.
Nobody’s Child David Groff
Nobodies Child is about a fag hag dying of breast cancer, who wants a queen to raise her son. · Meanwhile, I ordered I Walk Between Raindrops, by T. Coraghessan Boyle, from the library. It is fun, and easy to read. I should finish it with no existential problems. The only problem is that Amazon does not have any ★ reviews. There is, however, a ★★ review. · hoss – short stories – Reviewed in Germany on August 19, 2024 “The writing is great but I don’t like unconnected short stories. The setting is dystopian, sick people, end of the world (I like that!). “
Life Suck, or Ernest Hemingway Never Slept Here Tim Barrus
The first step is to turn on the machine. Open the folder with the file, then the file, then docs. You clear the drabble document, and type 100 words … no more, no less … into the gaping window. Focus on the document, and not one how great things were when Ernest Hemingway lived here with his six-toed cats. Don’t worry about what time the football game comes on, or the fact that if you don’t shit soon you are going to explode in a fecal mess. Sunday morning is not just for church anymore, unless you are out … Pictures today are from Special Collections and Archives, Georgia State University Library. The featured image was taken by Tracy O’Neal in May, 1960. “S.S. Kresge Co. 2595 N. Decatur Rd., Decatur, Ga. Store #755″