Charles Alexander
Parting Glances: A beard in time ...
There are shared similarities between high-visibility personalities Pastor Joel Osteen and Republican Vice President Mike Pence. First off, each shepherds a flock of religious followers. Mike's, however, is basically evangelical and/or [...]
Parting Glances: Emily's Ribbon At a Time ...
The 19th Century poet Emily Dickinson wrote over 1,800 poems in her five-decade life. In one of these exceptional, divinatory and uniquely insightful, poems she spoke of "a certain slant of light." She found this sunlight "oppressive as cathedral [...]
Parting Glances: When in Rome ... Slam Doors
One of Rome's more prolific male escorts — who goes by the name of Francesco Mangiacapra, and the nickname Mangi-Me-I-Mangi-you — decided recently to give the Vatican a queerful, earful. Mangiacapra, who claims he no longer can put up with the [...]
Parting Glances: A Doggy Bag in Time
A $10.5 million, GOP-funded study undertaken by the Institute for the Regionalization and Redistricting of Dogs, Cats, Kittens & Pups sheds new – and controversial – light on how we humans treat our tailed friends. The Good Ol' Pets study, [...]
Parting Glances: Chapter from a Memoir in Process
As a teenager I learned the lay of the land from word-of-mouth publicity given from those who had navigated the watering spots years before me. I did, however, venture — daringly — on my own into the Greyhound Bus Depot to check out noonday comings [...]
Parting Glances: The Queer Occasion of Sin
It's been almost 125 years since the story, "The Priest and the Acolyte" was published in a collegiate, gay magazine, "The Chameleon," in London, England. It was quickly labeled banned, shocking reading. The tragic tale was actually written in 1894 [...]
Parting Glances: When Gay Boys Turn 50 Gaily
A 50th anniversary production of Mort Crowley's groundbreaking play "The Boys in the Band" closed on Broadway Aug. 12 of this year, with big-name stars Jim Parsons (who has said goodbye to TV's "Big Bang Theory"), Andrew Rannells, Matt Bomer and [...]
Parting Glances: A chance encounter with Dr. Heath
As a gay teenager I hung out at the Hub Grill in downtown Detroit, a greasy spoon of a place, located on the corner of Farmer and Bates Streets. It was in convenient walking distance of four quite popular gay bars, City Hall and the 1st Precinct [...]
Parting Glances: To Pee or Not to Pee ...
I can be thinking contentedly of a dozen things — of sealing wax, cabbages and queens — but let me get 100 yards near my studio and without the slightest conscientious intent on my part, I suddenly, urgently, desperately, have to pe-E-E-E! I'm [...]
Parting Glances: Lights (and Gurgles) Remembered
"I'm burning my candle at both ends. It will not last the night. But, oh, my foes, and, ah, my friends. It gives a lovely light!" These words are by bisexual poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), the subject of a fascinating best-selling [...]
Jon Strand: Dots! Exclamation points! Smiles!
For those with an obsession for counting things there are 10,000 alphabet letters in this review of pointillist artist Jon Strand's exhibition: Oracles, Temples and Waves … and a dragon named Raoul. But 10,000 is a piddling word count to be sure, [...]
Parting Glances: Book in progress #1
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, four-story building. The red brick anchors [...]