Lucky

Remember when Stephen Gately of Boyzone came out in 1999? It was huge news then and finished the band. I used to like hearing his nasal singing on their tunes, Some time after the band broke up, I had occasion to see him live, playing Joseph in the show Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I had a great seat, so got a real good look, only to be a bit disappointed. How anyone could have missed that he was gay mystified me, as my gaydar was quite abuzz.. But the girls in the audience didn't care- they hooted and hollered. Gately died at the age of 33 from a pulmonary edema. My favorite song:

Thanks, hito. I will try tomorrow.

I rounded off, as my point wasn't the passage of time since, but the memory that stays with me. By next year I could be in heaven with JFK, screwing women together. So I had best report my memory now!

For years, once common thing has been that everyone knew where they were and what they were doing the moment they heard that the president had been assassinated. Now as the population ages, plenty of folk see his death as ancient history. But I am one of those who remember distinctly where I was- in class in school. An announcement came over the PA, where a breathless priest announced that news had come over the wireless that the president was dead. He actually used the word wireless to describe the radio. We all headed to church. The entire weekend was devoted to watching the television. Every minute we could get of news was not enough. Then Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald as the nation watched in horror. Could things get any worse? What were the Soviets planning? In my opinion, Jacqueline Kennedy kept the nation whole that weekend. Her grace under pressure and subdued grief was something we all admired. Time passed, and Johnson became entrenched in the office. That it was 50 years ago seems stunning. Kennedy would now be 96 if he had lived.

Recently I bought a new Logitech wireless keyboard from Costco. It came with a wireless mouse. Everything worked well, so I tossed the packaging. I cannot find the receipt. But, yesterday the keyboard developed a glitch. The main thing I noticed was the failure of the delete key to delete. I am well within the return period, but have tossed all the packaging. Any advice on how to get this working without having to return it?

Thanks Oz. I remember seeing the advertisements for the Holiday Inn when I was last there. but this trip I won't be traveling solo, so small rooms might not work out.

Thanks for the reply, Casteran. I have walked by the hotel and know the area. But it's a comfortable bed I want most. Le Meridien had the most comfortable beds and is just down the street. But their prices are up. Booking.com has it at $260 a night, whereas other sites are half that. I paid $105 in January. The Crowne Plaza is,I believe, previously a Pan Pacific. I stayed there for its soft opening and paid $126 a number of years ago. I had to check out as it was so noisy from room construction,which, of course, the front desk denied was happening. You could hear it everywhere since the hotel faces an atrium. Do you have any Asia travel stories to add? I love hearing those.

Oh, you mean I could go back and "unlike" the posts of mine that I checked "like" on before I understood that it was for others to say, not me? I wish I didn't know that...

Any reviews on this hotel from posters here? I hate to pay big bucks for a hotel when I am only going to arrive about 2 a.m. The Tarntawan is about $89 for a deluxe room, which is higher than I thought it would be. What I want, though, is a comfortable place to be following a 24 hour or so trip across the ocean. Sleep will be what's on my mind before bar boys. So far I am only in the planning stage- this after telling myself no trip to Thailand next year. (Blame Oz and his highly exciting posts on Thailand!) The hotel very subtly says on their website "no joiner charge."

I titled the thread on the apparently mistaken assumption that I was among some traveling folks here. A least, travelers to Asia. So, if I could type the headline again, it would be Places I Have Enjoyed In Asia. (hint) I have been to Montreal's dismal Chinatown, and I have been to the Web, but back when it was truly geared to Asians and their fans. However, each Asian person you encounter counts a bit toward having been to the land he came from, no?

I am toying with the idea of taking the President's lead and visiting Yangon. It's a convenient 90- minute flight from Bangkok, and, as a tall white guy, I would be the focus of fascination by those who see few of us. (This happened to me once in a small Chinese town. People rode their bikes up and down the street just to have another look at the strange foreigner.) It makes me wonder which of you has gone where in Asia. I started with Bangkok, Pattaya, Singapore and Tokyo in 1987. My repeated trips to Thailand allowed me to see much of the north, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and the border town Mae Sa, where I did walk across the border into Myanmar on one of the rare days the border was open to foreign tourists. All we could do then was walk around, but the people were very friendly and happy to see us. In Chiang Rai, I went with my all-time favorite bar boy.We stopped at his home, where he no longer lived, but kept a bedroom. It was filled with gifts from other farangs like me, mostly clothing. But, unlike those other farangs, I got to go to the temple with his mother, where she had me dancing with her in some kind of festival. You should see the picture! All of this after spending the night in bed with her son. Since I have gone to Phuket, taking the boat tour of the exceptionally beautiful Pang Na Bay,where the James Bond island is. No doubt the Muslim fishing village we visited was washed away in the tsunami. (It was built on stilts over the water.) Another tour I took from Bangkok was to the ruins of Ayuthya, and another trip to the river Kwai. In Singapore it is not that hard to see much of the country. But I was so bored. Gay life then was suppressed. But I did make a day trip into Malaysia, so, technically I have been there too. In Japan I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, riding the famed bullet train there, and getting to see Mount Fuji on a day when it chose to appear. The Peace Park in Hiroshima is very impressive, with a ruined building remaining and a room-sized scale model of the city after the bomb showed the widespread destruction. I didn't like the way those little Japanese kids looked at me afterward! Kyoto looks beautiful in the pictures, but in reality is a cramped and crowded megalopolis- or so it seemed. Hong Kong is fascinating, although I was there pre-1997. But it's a neat place still, no doubt. From there I took a hydrofoil over to Shenzen, then a bus tour to Guangzhou, stopping in the village where I was such a celebrity, albeit briefly. The bus had stopped at a restaurant enclosed from the village, but I didn't like the food, so took my walk. What's left? Oh, Vietnam, but not as a soldier. We went to Ho Chi Minh City,then flew to Co Mau and took the boat ride I described in another thread. And then there is Siem Reap, in Cambodia, which fascinated me. It's the home of Ankgor Wat. Another place with friendly people, unless they were killing each other. The village is quite interesting too. My last night there I finally cracked the secretive gay life. They do have a gay-friendly bar, but it was always rather empty and showed no signs of being gay other than that familiar rainbow. But return trips always involve Bangkok for some reason. I think I have been all over that city. And you? Where in Asia have you been?

But clothes make the man. Would this guy be as sexy without the props? Yes, the pants, but the bike, the sunglasses, the headphone.

Would you want me to agree with your ultra liberal nudity in public views? What fun would the forum then be? Since I started the thread opposing nudity in public, are you not the one being contrary? hehehe! (Beyond that, we now have lookin at 5 posts for the day! What would that count be if I had not posted this?)

Were these the same friends you talked to about nudity in public? Would the above indulgence then be conducted naked?

" Like Lucky, they do not enjoy seeing their neighbors' dangly parts and perhaps feel that their offspring might be irreparably harmed by skipping down the street and suddenly coming face-to-crotch with an unclad community member." Simply not true! My kids, both canines, walk the house and the neighborhood naked every single day! They are quite comfortable with their nudity, and mine, for that matter. "Yesterday, I asked a couple of City boys what they thought about all the fuss. They confirmed what I've heard before, that it's a response to the stroller moms who have moved to the Castro to raise their families...: Serious nonsense! We have social mores for a reason- so we can live together in harmony. Not only that, clothes have practical benefits besides keeping one warm. What fun it is to remove the clothing from the cute guy you just picked up...where would that be if he was naked to start with?

Bieber's taste in clothing may have caused his breakup!

I didn't want to say it at first, but now that fewer people are looking at the thread, I can tell my story and not look boastful. Over the past 30 years, The Art of Manliness has asked me to be both their spokesman, and, at many other times to pose for a centerfold and accompanying article calling me the epitome of manliness. Well, I just didn't want the attention; a real man, you know, doesn't seek it. So, after several years of virtually bombarding me with offers, I had to go to court to get a restraining order, keeping them away. I didn't feel very manly doing that. (This story has no basis in reality.)

If waiting in line at Jack in the Box represents the 70's, I am glad that I lived elsewhere! Some other hamburger place!

The Performers will close on Sunday, only 7 performances on thee official run. They did a lot of previews. I almost bought a ticket for $127 + fee, total $137. Thank you moderators for sending the hand of Twink down to stop me!

One doesn't think of you consorting with meth users, hito. BTW< Congrats on the 3000th post. I hope you had fun posting them.

No such luck. He was treated by paramedics after being removed from the theater. Patrons were given paper towels to clean themselves. One woman failed to clean up: (not an actual patron)

Okay, then. It is not about me, but who are those guys who only post so they can get to the top? The most-liked ones? That would be ironic. We like what they post! Let's see, we've ruled out Lucky and lurkerspeaks...

He liked his crystal meth too. After failing to win a ranking of #1 following the 2008 Olympics, he became depressed and entered the spiral of crystal meth. He reveals this in his new autobiography, Twists and Turns. He is also interviewed on Australia's 60 Minutes, a short preview of which is here: http://video.au.msn....minutes/xqmkd46

I am not lookin to be contrary here, but I am beginning to wish that nudity on the streets of San Francisco had never gotten off the ground. If you are unfamiliar with the controversy over the right to be naked in public, this might fill you in: http://www.nytimes.c...nce.html?ref=us When we think of nude men, we think of the guys in the Pornification Forum. (This guy, for example, I want to see naked, just not at the grocery store: But the reality is different: I don't want to see the naked parts of most people, and I think I have just as much right to walk the streets without being offended as anyone. Why these folks think they have a right to be naked in public escapes me. We have social customs that have worked for a long time. Society functions best when groups can coexist, but nudists are not happy being allowed to go forth at parades and fairs. They want to expose themselves to me, and I don't want to see it. Why can't it snow in San Francisco? Get those metal benches nice and cold...

In other theater news, a drunk patron at the Paul Rudd play "Grace" was sitting in the front row of the mezzanine the other night when he vomited all over the people sitting below. The show didn't miss a beat despite the commotion.