Cafe Torino, NYC and Best Friends......

Another night of calamari,vino and portobellos.....

What else is there to say............

Jim McGreevey

My partner and I went to a book signing on Sunday by Jim McGreevey.
It was at small bookstore in New Jersey and he arrived late.
He was really trying his best to give everyone special time and you could feel he was really genuine. I met him about a year ago at a fund raiser and he was not received very well from the gay community. I think people either like or hate him.
I like him, even though he may have done some not so ethical things during his stay in the governors mansion. I believe many politicians do things we never hear about. The advocate mag came and surprisingly he is on the cover. He asked how long we were together and I told him 23 years, he signed my book with some inscription in reference to that.

Honestly I am very happy for him that he finally seems to stop playing the game.

View of Manhattan from Bedroom

Chapters

Lately I have noticed that life is like chapters, people enter at some point and exit at other points. Its like a wave that you have no control over, it just happens.
It can be a positive experience or negative one, your choice. I have had such a wave many times in my life, some have been positive, some negative, but all good in the long run. Life just gets better and better. Family is very important and they change as well. I was told by a metaphysician once never depend on people, places or things because they are constantly changing. Boy is that the truth. East Hampton beach is a place I love this time of year. When I look at the water it reminds me of the waves or chapters of Life, they drift in and out. Someone I knew just passed away at 50. I didn't know him well, but he was a very genuine person, a good person, whose life was too fleeting. He would visit East Hampton during the year and I would run into him there through mutual friends. They say when someone dies that his life's experiences are up and no longer needs to be here. Its really hard to accept this especially when one is so young. I am ready for the next chapter of my life and I hope they just get better and better. Giovanni, I speak about you whose life was too short by anybodies standard. I hope you go on with God speed and also at the same time you are always with us like some cool and warm breeze on the beach. God speed old friend, God speed.

QUINCEANERA

Last night I went to this movie with Nestor called "Quinceanera". It was a coming of age movie about a 14 year girl who at 15 will celebrate her quinceanera, a right of passage for young girls. I think that the celebration is mainly a mexican tradition. My friend who is Columbian told me that he had only been to one. The film also has a gay theme, her cousin who is this really hot chulo from Echo Park starts playing with this couple who move in upstairs from him. I am usually not attracted to latins but I couldnt get enough of this guy. This film was a real slice of what life is like in Echo Park Los Angeles.

Yankee game on tonight, boring Saturday night

Good Ole Whitney

Whitney Houston has finally come to her senses after 14 years of marriage with Bobby Brown by asking for a divorce. Im sure after all the abuse she had done to her voice over the years that it probably has suffered greatly.

I can just imagine her comeback. It will most likely result in some gay pier dance next year, and knowing us gays we will take her back with open arms, we did it with Donna Summer and she really gave us a reason to hate her.

How come when a singer falls from grace the gay community is so fast to take them back and into their arms once again. I think it has to do with us understanding pain and suffering at times in our lives. We all know the perils of drugs and bad choices in mates, and Whitney has suffered with both demons.

Just watch in the next couple of months and you will see I am right. When she gets back on top the gays will never hear from her again, very similar to Donna Summer and Grace Jones.

Grief

Andrew Hollerans new book is called "Grief", and it is quite a good read. It is really amazing how he captures a whole generation of people who have been in such a state of denial about their grief due the aids epidemic. I am a 45 year old man and have lost many friends to aids, and have been in such a state of grief for a long time now. I have noticed that there are times I feel so stagnant about life in general. One of the biggest hurdles for me is just trying to slow down and enjoy life. I feel like I am always running to get my mind off difficult things, either taking trips or just keeping really busy.

Every year at New Years I make a vow to release all these memories of people that passed and its really hard to keep. It definitely feels like I was left here to create something larger in mine and their memory. Out of five close friends three are gone and one I am still friends with one and the other will not speak to me any longer since I represent the past, so he says. I start to wonder if I would have been friends with them, even if they were alive. After college we all went our separate ways but kept in touch. It was really difficult for me watching them suffer through medical tests and life in general. Most of these guys were poly addicted, sex,drugs and alcohol.

The one thing I am very lucky about is having partner for 23 years. He has been my foundation and has pulled me through some difficult times. All in all I have lost about 10 friends, and always wonder what they would have been doing right now. I have some friends now that are in their 50s and have given up sex and the idea of ever meeting someone. Andrew Holleran refers to them as "gay emeritus", I have to chuckle but I tell ya its all too sad. I once said to my mom "that she would never know the kind of grief I have know and she said "Oh no", how about polio. It stopped me in my tracks and I realized some generations do know what we are talking about, we are not alone.

I don't understand bareback sex and some of my friends engage in it all the time. They tell me there is a different degree of intimacy without a rubber. I think the degree of how much you love yourself is whether you wear a rubber or not. I am working on this grief thing but it is not easy.

OH NO THE MANZA SISTERS...........

Part 1
I have heard about 2 sisters that are outrageously rich, stylish and just plain crazy as I was visiting the Isle of Capri about 2 years ago. It was by accident that the sisters were vacationing on Capri at the same time I was. I arrived in Capri via a ferry anticipating a wonderful vacation, my vacation was anything but wonderful. When we arrived I looked to the left and saw a yacht, the size of nothing I have ever seen floating in the water before. All at once I heard another commotion on the right and looked and and saw another yacht somewhat larger. One yacht was named the Regina and the other yacht was name the Andrea. Both of course had heli pads and helicopters that rival anything Trump has owned. As we approached the island the ferry captain threw his hands in the air and yelled in Italian " quelle femmine ehanno di ritorno, il mio dio", roughly translated it means My god, those bitches are back!!!!". My curiosity had really take over and I was dying to see these bitches, oops I means sisters. I had heard that the sisters had rented the whole hotel called "La Scalintella". According to Andrea the younger and fairer of the two this was slumming. Both traveled with 50 to 75 trunks of clothes each and 10 dogs each, all named "Lola". The dogs were all named "Lola", so that when one died they never had to grieve they just had another dog name "Lola", and they were never sure which dog died had died.

Part 2
My first day on the isle, I thought I would go see the famous Blue Grotto but that was not to be I heard that the darker beauty Regina took the whole grotto over to have party with the likes of Nelly, Jay Z, Sheikh Saad (the Royal Crown Prince of Kuwait), Puff Daddy and Outkast.
Andrea, I heard had been flown to Cap Ferrat for a fitting by none other than Christian LaCroix and would return later in the evening. The concierge of the hotel told me that is very unusual for both girls to travel together, because usually one establishment, club or island could not handle them together. In the afternoon when I normally would going shopping, it again was not to be. All of the designer stores were closed for them to shop in private with their posse.
Things really got scary that evening when I heard that their party would go well into the morning, and the Gruccis were sent in to do the fireworks. I never slept that night because between 50 cent and Mary J Blige were rapping into a microphone so loud that my whole bed was jumping from the floor and I was a full block away.
I finally got to see the Manza sisters the next day along with a hundred other people as they walked to their private yachts to leave the island. Andrea the younger one accompaigned by 10 dogs, 5 body guards, Nicky Hilton (her new best friend)
Regina passed with 9 dogs (one died in the grotto), 5 body guards and Lindsay Lohan (her new best friend>.
All left for St Tropez to continue their summer party fest. I thought the Hiltons were spoiled, but boy these girls take the cake, and eat it too. When they left it was reported the island had no more Crystal champagne or lobsters. It would take two months to resupply. I was glad to leave Capri and will ask the travel agent the next time to ask the hotel "Are the Manza sisters going to be there and I suggest you do the same, if you ever want to sleep or relax. Now I know what its means when someone says,"OH NO THE MANZA SISTERS"

Little MIss Sunshine

Jay and I went to see a cute movie last night called "Little Miss Sunshine It was really a fun movie. The theater was packed, so we had to sit in the second row. This chick next to me had the worst breath, I guess I am sexist because I think I can deal with men who have bad breath but women, a big gross. When we left the theater we went to greek restaurant that is housed in a trailer and everyone that works there is Spanish. Very strange set up for a greek restaurant, but the food is very good. We had calamari, greek salads and a chicken pita. Today I am on my way to Middletown NJ to have dinner at my brothers house, as always should be interesting.

The Feast of San Gennaro

The San Gennaro feast is about to start in NYC next weekend and its a huge celebration for any Italian in NY. The feast will be starting on Thursday, September 14 and goes for eleven nights through till September 24. To read more about the San Gennaro Feast

Paris is Burning

Paris is one of those people that always has me scratching my head, but honestly she keeps it interesting. She is now in embroiled in the middle of a DUI situation with the Los Angeles police department. This is actually not very funny to me since she can kill not only herself but some innocent person. In the last year I have driven a few times that afterwards I thought "maybe I should have not driven".
I promised myself after the last time, that it would be the last time I perform that stunt. If I ever hurt a person while driving impaired I dont think I would be able to live with myself. God only watches fools and drunks for so long.

Rosie does it again.............

I watched the View today by accident, and Rosie O'Donnell was on. Let me first say I really like "Rosie", because she says it as she see it. She sometimes can be shameless and not care about a persons feelings. I have witnessed her in action a few times in my life, I happen to be in the same surroundings and she can be very tough when she wants to be. I generally liked the show but have to be honest, maybe because it was her first show, I don't know, but she up staged everyone including Barbara Walters. Just from Joy Behars face you can tell she was not happy. Do I see her in this position for very long? Not really. She will be on for a few months, just like Katie Couric. I wish Rosie the best, but wonder why she isn't she doing her own show.

Summer

Summer feels like its over,usually I am in Europe somewhere and this year we didnt go. This has been a crazy summer.One of our friends is in throws of the last stage of cancer and will probably been gone in a few weeks. It didnt feel like the usual summer. I am in East Hampton,N.Y., and the weather really is bad. Fall is usually a nice time for me, hopefully this one will be great.