Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: Sister's L24J "Moonmidata"
I feel remiss to the many PG fans of Sr. Serena Scatterpin, Renegade Sisters of Mary, who've sent worrywart e-mails about her absence from these too-frequently-secular columns. Over the years Recovering Catholics – which seems to be just about [...]
Leather playwright Ron Worsley dies
Ron Worsley, a prominent member of Detroit's leather community and activist for many years, passed away Feb. 26 from congestive heart failure. He was 78. Detroit's leather community – now a slim shadow of its former muscular presence – thrived at [...]
Parting Glances: W.W.J.Dust?
Times are tough for artists. Times are tough for shrinks. When it comes to saving money, art and psych-me-outs are luxuries, seldom necessities. The bottom line – tops included – is painting and analysis – worthwhile for juggling Body, Mind, and [...]
Viewpoint: A life recovered may be your own
It's been 28 years since my Lost Weekend. A nightmare hopefully never to be repeated. Alcohol. I had my first drink at 15. Cheap wine drunk from a bottle (no idea how we got it) in my best friend's basement. My last drink, age 45, at Christmastime. [...]
Parting Glances: Your quincunx or mine?
One of the pleasures of English is the imaginative and poetic use of its collective nouns. Their fanciful pedigree as names for person, places and things goes back to the 15th century. A pride of lions. A murder of crows. A dray of squirrels. A [...]
Parting Glances: Sarah's Rose of Cairo
Last Tuesday I chanced to find myself four fast food commercials into "Purple Rose of Cairo," at the magic moment when Mia Farrow (who, by the way, turned 65 this year, not that I hold that against her) is joined from the silver screen by [...]
Parting Glances: Tossyoursalad.com
If there's any Web site that can attest to the versatility and ingenuity of the unfettered human spirit when it comes to creative sexpression it's http://www.x-tuber.com. It's free! If you're a bit lacto. In possession of a corny-cob libido. Have a [...]
Parting Glances: Can ya' spare 24 for Elvis?
As someone who came out many Elvis Presley moons ago, it occurs to me, given all the media hoop-law these days about us – good, bad, fabricated, indifferent – that it's time we collectively revived a lost art form. Even if for only for one [...]
Parting Glances: Red shoes v. black boots
Hans Christian Anderson, who wrote "The Little Mermaid" and "The Red Shoes," wanted to be an opera singer. At 14, he ran away from home and was taken in by a series of affluent older men. He had an affair with a Danish ballet dancer, Harold Schaff. [...]
Parting Glances: Leapin' lizards, loopy who?
Perhaps it's appropriate that my day begins with the chance reading of an online item about a guy who was trying to smuggle a number of lizards through customs when leaving New Zealand. Found – in what can only be deemed the ample – and surely, [...]
Parting Glances: One dream at a time
I spent New Years Eve with a group of friends at a Dearborn Italian restaurant. There were 20 of us, all gay men, all gathered there for a second or third gay-friendly year of celebrating in a row. Afterward we socialized at a comfortable home in [...]
Parting Glances: It's that time again ...
If you ask me, the National Enquirer is once again doing America a great – and much needed – public and patriotic service this month by devoting several kiss-explicit pages to Who's Gay & Who's Not. Kiss kiss: Courtney Love and Amanda de [...]