Put your arms around someone

Just put your arms around someone
Never know whose waiting for a little love
It's not a waste of time
We got enough
So put your arms around someone
There's a whole lot of hurt going around
If you got a smile
Won't you pass it down
It's going to mean so much
So go on go on and put your arms around someone

---

Jeannettte McCurdy
Lyrics from Put your arms around someone

A uniform makes the man

Or much more likely, makes you want to make the man

This spread through the net with the note, "Me and my boyfriend at the Marine Corps Ball"

I must go down to the seas again

I have this thing about sailors. Perhaps because my family has a history of sea-faring. My grandfather, one uncle and a cousin were all master mariners; others in the family held various positions in the merchant marine. Even my father went to sea - once and only once - as a deck boy when he was 16. Then again, perhaps it's the uniform. Who knows.

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I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

---

John Masefield (1878 - 1967)
Sea Fever

Christmas past

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A soldier carrying a Christmas tree, 1915

A woman returns home from the market with a Christmas tree, 1895

A Christmas tree in an Edwardian parlour, 1905

A young sailor buys a Christmas tree at a greengrocer's and a young boy
waits in a queue of children to buy some mistletoe, 1918

Source: Vintagephoto on Livejournal

Cold Case: Forever Blue

"Forever Blue", which is set in the 1968, follows the current day investigation into the murder of police officer Sean "Coop" Cooper (Shane Johnson.) It uncovers the relationship between Coop and his partner Jimmy Bruno (Brian Hallisay.) When it first aired there was no indication this would be a gay story line. It wasn't until about 20 minutes into the episode that it was revealed.

Cold Case as a series explored gay ("A Time to Hate", "Forever Blue", It's Raining Men), lesbian ("Best Friends"), and transgendered/transexual ("Boy Crazy", "Daniela") themes and did so very well.

Excerpts leading up to the final 10 minutes


The final 10 minutes

While the first two are my videos, if you have the time (45 minutes) someone has added the entire episode to Youtube. Use full screen to get the best picture.

In the midst of chaos

you may find unexpected kindness

Don't leave me, even for an hour

Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because
then the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach;
may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance.
Don't leave me for a second, my dearest,

because in that moment you'll have gone so far
I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking,
Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?

---

Pablo Neruda (1904 - 1973)
No Estés Lejos De Mí Un Solo Día
(translation)

Come a little bit closer

Come a little bit closer, you're my kind of man, so big and so strong.
Come a little bit closer, I'm all alone, and the night is so long.

---

Tommy Boyce, Bobby Hart & Wes Farrell
Lyrics from Come a little bit closer

Pic of the day

What law do I need to break to let him handcuff me?

From Bill in Exile

Then he kissed me

'Tis when the lark goes soaring
And the bee is at the bud,
When lightly dancing zephyrs
Sing over field and flood;
When all sweet things in nature
Seem joyfully achime -
'Tis then I wake my darling,
For it is kissing time!

---

Eugene Field 1850 - 1895
From Kissing Time

Gimme some of that ol' time . . .

We all love a man in uniform (or out of it)

I praise the dance, for it frees people
from the heaviness of matter and binds the isolated to community.
I praise the dance, which demands everything:
health and a clear spirit and a buoyant soul.
Dance is a transformation of space, of time, of people,
who are in constant danger of becoming all brain, will, or feeling.
Dancing demands a whole person,
one who is firmly anchored in the center of his life,
who is not obsessed by lust for people and things
and the demon of isolation in his own ego.
Dancing demands a freed person,
one who vibrates with the equipoise of all his powers.
I praise the dance.
O man, learn to dance,
or else the angels in heaven will not know what to do with you

---

Saint Augustine (354 - 430)