Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: Memories of a Near-Forgotten Past Pt.2
At 19, I went to my first gay bar on Halloween: the Silver Slipper, a dyke bar on Grand River, near downtown Detroit. I used borrowed ID, was escorted authoritatively by two stone butch regulars, Speedy and Draino. Lesbians sat in an upstairs [...]
Pages Past Tense #1
Parting Glances I keep on my laptop desk a corner of chalky red brick. It's all that's left of Cassboro Apartments, 444 Peterboro, Detroit. I found this memento among broken boards, shattered glass of the recently razed building. It anchors [...]
Blue brainiacs by default
In a triangle whose sides are 23,145,789 yards, 5,642,732 yards and 54,965 yards, how many cubicle one-eighths of an inch exist? Good cocktail question for a lull in your yuletide party. Pass the mistletoe, Mary. I haven't a clue. But an adult [...]
Parting Glances: Porn Sunday, X-Men?
I irreverently begin this PG Mary-go-round with a caveat of charity, sprinkled with a modicum of glee. Charity for hypocritical factotums of the religious right who rarely extend that most Christian of virtues to others. And glee . . . Call it a [...]
Parting Glances: Hands up! (One arm bandits)
After picking up art pieces left at Metro Times — used to illustrate a review of my January Scarab Club show — extremely favorable, I'll modestly add — I wade through snow, slush, tooting traffic to stop across the street at the busy, busy Greek [...]
Parting Glances: Berries for a state visitor
It's not an up-tempo day. I awoke this morning only to discover that my pipes are frozen solid – no cold water to temper the hot water for my invigorating daily shower; no flush water to accommodate the liquid-blue ministrations of Princess Tidy [...]
Parting Glances: Book pages (Pt. 18)
Going to New York City in mid-July was a mistake. Temperature was in the 90s. Air conditioning was limited to offices and entertainment venues. Ten minutes onto the pavements, we perspired from our ducktail-combed heads to our spit-polish penny [...]
Parting Glances: President Ford: DA/DT?
OLIVER "BILLY" SIPPLE. Born, Detroit, Nov. 20, 1941. Died, San Francisco, Feb. 2, 1989. A reluctant hero, he strolled into history at a precise psychological moment but an inconvenient time. His year with destiny: 1975. Billy's favorite San [...]
Parting Glances: Snap-on garters
I'm attending my eighth gay wedding – Holy Union – in maybe 10 years. (Always a bridesmaid never a bride. Old tattered Top Hat that I am, I'll gladly wear any snap-on garters – or best men – that are tossed my way.) There are 90 guests present this [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 12)
During my out-and-about summer I learned from 'Gee Gee' (Gorgeous George) that Harper Hospital was training recent high school graduates to become operating room technicians. I wanted to party, party. My parents insisted I find work. (Even with my [...]
Parting Glances: Pages from a book (Pt. 4)
My mother took me Sundays to First Baptist Church from the time I was five until I turned 12. We rode with a Mrs. Williamson, her two sons, William and Robert. Detroit's First Baptist (now People's Community Church) was affiliated with the American [...]
Parting Glances: Are you being, er, served?
Two expressions hop to mind while watching the media circus that strikes up the band around Michael Jackson's moon walk: "it's in the stars" and "it's in the lap of the gods." For PG readers with an astrological bent (or a penchant for heavenly lap [...]