Sunday, March 17, 2024

Ethan Slater


 My new man crush Ethan Slater star of the Broadway musical SpongeBob SquarePants. Slater will star in the upcoming Wicked movie based on the musical. 

Sunday, March 3, 2024

All of Us Strangers


I watched the movie All of Us Strangers recently and it really stayed with me. It was a sort of a gay ghost story. I’d never seen a movie like it. It was about a man whose parents died when he was a kid. He ends up going back to his childhood home, and there he sees his parents as they were when they died. Now, they were the same age as him. Then woven into that story was a love story. The man meets another man living in his apartment building, and he has a beautiful, romantic affair with him. The parents tell him at the end that he should be with this man before they leave. It’s definitely one of the most moving and haunting movies that I’ve seen in a long time.

Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Jonathan Larson

 


I’ve been listening to a lot of Jonathan Larson’s music lately and thinking about him. 

Larson was so amazingly talented and like most of the men I draw I think he was really good looking. His music and life story has inspired me so much and some of his songs have moved me to tears. Larson wrote the musical Rent which was made into a movie in 2005. More recently in 2021 Larson’s musical tick, tick... BOOM! was made into a movie starring Andrew Garfield. The movie is about Larson’s work on his futuristic unproduced musical called Superbia. Some of the song lyrics are almost eerily prophetic.  Especially Sextet which I think predicts social media influencers, the internet, cellphones and society’s becoming numb to emotions. 
Larson passed away in 1996 at the age of 35 from an aortic dissection the day before Rent opened off Broadway.
Only days before, he had gone to the hospital complaining of chest pain but they sent him home undiagnosed. It’s a tragic story which I believe happens more often than people realize because what I’ve learned from having Adhesive Arachnoiditis is that doctors have unlimited power to cover up their mistakes. They have more power than even our elected officials and they can lie and cover up when their mistakes cause an unwrongful death. Because the hospital industry protects them and not the patient and there is no one to hold them to account. I know because they did it to me and are still covering up my disease to this day because it was caused from an epidural. 
Larson was outspoken, about social issues in his plays. I believe in 2024 He would have been a much needed voice for democracy. He would have helped fight the creeping fascism that exists today and is poised to takeover the US in 2024 Larson would have been 64 this month. 
I will most likely die similarly to Larson. Undiagnosed and in my home. 
Jonathan’s work mattered so much. He touched so many lives but it wasn’t until after his death that so many people even got to know of him. I hope my art can touch people even in some small way like that when I’m gone. Here is my posthumous tribute to you Jonathan. Thank you for everything you did. I really love you. 


Thursday, February 22, 2024

Raúl Esparza


After having a major pain flare episode and being sick for a couple weeks I’ve actually been feeling a little better and stronger the past couple days. So I did this drawing of Raul Esparza. This is him from the show Murder at the End of the World on Hulu. I love Raul so much he’s so handsome and talented. He acts but he also has this amazing singing voice. I would love to see him in a movie musical and see him win an Oscar. He deserves all the awards he’s so multi-talented it’s extraordinary. I’m hoping this feeling lasts for a little while. 

Friday, February 2, 2024

Hawaii my Dream



A warm tropical breeze blows over us. Our feet are at the shoreline. The waves go over our feet as our toes are in the sand. It’s so perfect. Palm trees and sunshine. 

I asked myself what would I be if I wasn’t sick and I’d never gotten Adhesive Arachnoiditis. The answer was: laughing, walking, running, having fun, going to movies., making love, going to Hawaii, going on a plane, laying at the beach in the sunshine. With the waves washing up over my feet. Our feet. And we are so in love. 

Monday, January 22, 2024

The Movies and Adhesive Arachnoiditis


I miss going to the movies. This disease I have, Adhesive Arachnoiditis prevents me from going. It’s a progressive disease which attacks the nerves in the spine. The pain in my back is so bad sometimes it’s unbearable. My legs have been really weak lately. I’m afraid I’m losing my ability to walk. If that happens I don’t know what I’ll do. But I’m grateful for what I have. Grateful that I can still write this blog post. If I die I want to thank all the people in my life, past and present, who were nice to me or helped me in any way. And remember me as the person who loved movies and tv shows and music. 

Thursday, January 18, 2024

Alex O’loughlin aka Steve McGarrett

 

Alex O’loughlin who played Steve McGarrett on my favorite show Hawaii Five-0. He’s retired from acting but once in a while he’ll pop up on someone else’s social media feed. He does Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu now