The American summer of 2009 has been an illuminating season for the Republican Party. The Astroturf thuggery of Town Halls, the overt racism of the right wing talk radio echo chamber, Fox News regurgitating GOP talking points, Birthers, Birchers and Deathers, all shining a glaring light on what has become the rump Republican Party.

The Republican tailspin has been a slow devolution over the past few years, but there was an exponential gain in speed since 2008 caused by loss due to incompetence, economic collapse and pandering to the worst elements on their fringes. The GOP has shed its rational, intellectual, and honest membership, leaving the rotting hulk we see doing all they can to prove to themselves that they have never been wrong. Those who for lack of self control and circumspection are going completely berserk because they can no longer have it their way.

As I see it there are three main groups that have brought the GOP to its knees:

1.       The Autocrats – These are the war-mongering followers of Dick Cheney and his ilk. Those who have very small penises and an uncontrollable urge to prove their penises are not really small by stomping all over those who might pose a challenge to the United States; any type of challenge. They insist that the U.S. must be Number One in everything, or else. They are the Party of Perpetual War. They are pathologically compelled to control all others at any cost. Liberty, the rule of law, human rights all may be sacrificed to achieve their goal of proving to the world that they do not have small penises.

2.       The Theocrats – These are the powerful religious leaders and their followers whose Limbic Brain synapses are over firing. In their twisted, over electrically stimulated, primitive minds they insist their Christian deity is the only correct way to the preferred afterlife and to insure this they will force the non-compliant into an untimely afterlife if that’s what it takes. They believe their God commands they must convert the U.S. to a Christian fundamentalist theocracy by stealthily attaining the reins of government until enough power is accumulated that a radical conversion can commence, by force if necessary. For further frightening details one only has to look into the Dominionist movement and their determination to hasten their version of the End Times.

3.       The Kleptocrats – These are the ethically bankrupt, the morally repugnant, the Karl Roves of the GOP. Those who hold no real ideology of any sort and only worship power and the mighty dollar. They will lie, cheat, backstab, and twist with the political winds to say or do anything politically expedient at the time. If that means telling a lie today they then contradict tomorrow, it does not matter because the goal is to swamp the opposition with lies to the point where no one can keep track of the truth any longer. In this way they cater to giant, bloated corporations, filling their pockets with cash and influence. Kleptocrats who hold political office, the deregulators of industry, are setting as their future goal lucrative jobs as lobbyists where the real money and power can be found. The less charismatic, but more diabolically talented at telling the Big Lie, like Rove, just pull the strings of power from behind the curtain while cashing in on book deals and scraps thrown to them by those who they have made powerful and wealthy.

Most often a member of one of these groups will have a foot in another, but their true nature is generally tied to just one. An important aspect they do all share is exclusion of minorities. They may cynically place an African-American in a token ceremonial leadership position, but the demographics of the GOP cannot be mistaken. It’s no wonder minorities loath to join a party where leaders and self appointed spokespeople make veiled, and sometimes blatant, racist remarks in their attempts to smear dissenters. The result is an absence of diversity that only fuels a lack of empathy for minority concerns, and in some cases becomes overt intolerance. This entrenched racism, xenophobia, and homophobia is self perpetuating and rooted in religious bigotry and the white wealthy Republican elite’s unwillingness to share their spoils with those who they perceive as not working hard enough to be worthy of reward.

Why are true Republican colors so blatantly exposed now? As I mentioned before, their failings have driven the reasonable from their ranks. They are the unhinged rump, completely resistant to change and prone to panic attacks when shown proof they’re wrong. Those remaining have an internal mental mechanism that just turns off reason rather than deal with an unpleasant circumspect reality. They lost all subtlety. The Republican pond began to evaporate into mentally deranged conspiracy theorists, gun-toting militia groups, white supremists, and those who unapologetically justify violence to achieve their goals, i.e. the supporters of those who murder abortion providers. Reasonable, sane Americans just can’t help but to notice.

One does not need to suffer from any sort of impaired sense to enjoy Impaired Ocular Acuity and Other Demented Synapses, an Untidy Collection of Short Stories and Essays by author K.J., although being a bit demented, and bent, does help immensely.  It also helps to have an appreciation for the obvious theme: Beautiful young men.

K.J. bounces us back and forth across The Pond in his collection of seven short stories that celebrate male youth, beauty, and love. This collection begins in the States, always rural, but takes one mischievous journey through time to early twentieth century Great Britain, all the while K.J. shifting his writing effortlessly from American teen-speak to Texas drawl and even a style of English today only attributed tongue-in-cheek to the British Royals. We’re transported to these places and relate to the characters because we imagine them speaking the way K.J. weaves their dialog.

Once the reader is swept up in each story the end becomes clear, almost predictable, but Impaired Ocular Acuity and Other Demented Synapses is not about the destination; it’s about each journey and what can be learned along the way. We know the characters; they’re young, male, beautiful in various ways, whether they be pretty or handsome, and on a journey of discovery the author invites us to join. To the youthful reader they might long for a similar journey of their own. And for those who have already aged gracefully into the comfort of their own sexualities, they will be reminded of the eureka moments of their lives when they first took a fancy to a lovely face or a rhythmic sway of a tight bottom and wondered what they were looking at and what the strange warm feeling that came over them really meant.

The entire collection is a quick read that keeps us engaged in the discovery process. The first, Impaired Ocular Acuity, is a satisfying ‘gotcha’, but the longest, The Aroma of Coffee, is much more about erotic discovery and the love that may spring from it. And the reader must be prepared for an unsuspected surprise at the end of Sotto Voce, which, like some of the other stories, has an underlying theme that celebrates the love of music.

Author K.J. wraps his collection up with nine short essays; thoughts he calls The Preponderance of Evidence. Although not necessarily on theme with the short stories, they are thought provoking nevertheless, so in that sense the entire enterprise is meant to make us think. K.J. helps us ponder our youth, the beauty of young men, discovery, loss, music and how we best enjoy the use of our senses.

K.J.'s MySpace

This story took over ten years to write. It began in 1988 when Earl was going to Fresno City College. It's a story about a young gay man in Fresno, California who develops a wicked crush on a guy he sees at a bar (a not uncommon occurrence for the author at the time)… Many people Earl knew in real life became templates for characters in the story, including me. No character was really a true-life character study; of course, the story is fiction, with dramatic license taken where the plot dictated. It is true that some true-life events were incorporated into the story. For example, the rapid increase in the popularity of drag in Fresno in the early '90s… and the rise of a certain notorious group of misfits who challenged the drag status quo. This novel takes place in six volumes, covering more than five years of the life of the main character, Paul. The story begins with his attraction and obsession with David, who in the story is arguably the most attractive man in Fresno. Does Paul, a completely ordinary guy have even a prayer of a chance with David, AKA Mr. Perfect? Click the link below to find out, and hit Earl up for a friend request while you're at it.


PS: The drag queens don't even enter the story until Volume 2, so if drunken tales of ribaldry amongst the fashionably gender-twisted are what you're looking for, be patient. It'll be worth it.

Click the link below and use the archive link to the left of the blog page to go to the begining of the novel.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=245120788

Starved for gay culture, whether it be high or low? Then I recommend

BAMBOO NATION

Where writer/performer PRINCE GOMOLVILAS
blogs about high culture, low culture,
and most importantly...himself.

Prince has been accused of narcissism, solipsism, and circumcision, and he is proud to admit that at least two of those accusations are true. His plays include BIG HUNK O' BURNIN' LOVE, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, BEE, and the stage adaptation of MYSTERIOUS SKIN, which have been produced around the country and in Singapore. He received the PEN Center USA West Literary Award for Drama; East West Players' Made in America Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement for the Asian Pacific Islander Community; a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts; and a screenwriting fellowship from The Chesterfield Writer's Film Project, a program sponsored by Paramount Pictures. He also tours around the country with musician Brandon Patton as part of the storytelling, song-singing, game-playing, comic duo, JUKEBOX STORIES. He lives and writes in Los Angeles, with extended visits to San Francisco.

Hey everybody! Sexy up 'n coming Australian pop artist Dan Knight has recently released his album Energy. If you love the tunes you bounce to at the clubs, you'll love Energy! Click here to check out Dan's latest music videos, and click here to contact Dan and order Energy through his MySpace.

Obi are the top-most sash worn with various styles of Japanese kimono; several other sashes may be worn under the obi to secure the clothing in place and/or to enhance the shape of the body or of the uppermost sash.

The fukuro obi was created in the late 1920s as an alternative to the stiffer, heavier, less comfortable, old style maru obi. Today the fukuro obi is the most formal. It is made with fine silk brocade or tapestry, which is patterned along 60% of its length on one side. The back of the fukuro is lined with a plain silk or brocade in a color that compliments the pattern.

Fukuro obi run about 13 feet long and a foot wide and may be tied in many different fashions. Because of the difficulty of tying something so large, obi tying is a dying art and often professional 'dressers' must be employed to dress a woman properly in her kimono attire.

My fukuro obi are designed to be worn with a full woman's kimono and are about 30 to 50 years old. I use them to hang on doors in order to dress up what would otherwise be a very boring entry into another room.

Although formal fukuro obi might have cost about 100,000 Yen ($1,000 U.S.) when purchased new, because Japanese kimono and accessories lose value as second hand items, they can be purchased for $50 to $100 U.S. from wholesale dealers in vintage Japanese clothing.

This is my iromuji (色無地) kimono. Iromuji are distinctive for being dyed up in one color. This one is dyed silk with figuring known as rinzu, similar to jacquard, and is about 40 to 50 years old.

 Iromuji become formal dress when there is a family crest or kamon; in this case the kamon is the mokkou of the samurai clans Oda, Omura, Armina, Ikeda, Onodera, Takigawa, Takahashi, Wada, Naito, and Mikumo. It is also possible to wear iromuji as dress-wear when there is no crest by adding a formal furkuro or maru obi.  Iromuji may also be worn in many semiformal occasions such as informal gatherings and tea parties, and may be worn by any woman regardless of age or marital status.

When purchased new, this style kimono sold for 100,000 to 250,000 Yen ($1,000 - $2,500 U.S.). Kimono are like cars; when you drive them off the lot they lose their value. A used iromuji kimono without major flaws like this one can be purchased from a kimono wholesaler for about $100 to $150 U.S.