Music

Beard rhythms

House music weekend tune

/ fearsomebeard / 3 Comments

This came through my YouTube feed earlier. I’m liking the tunes. The video is a bit on the disturbing side. Or is it?

What’s your take?

David Zowie – The Real Don

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National Coming Out Day October 11, 2017

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Today is National Coming Out Day. Given that due to the threats on the first amendment to the US Constitution by a certain current administration I understand and felt the need to post Eminem’s political statement, I must balance him with a proper Dianna Ross classic as well.

Eminem has a sordid history with the gay community of which I belong. His tainted past of somewhat homophobic lyrics has been offensive at times, to say yes very least. I am in no way defending those lyrics. His intensely strong message posted here today defends all of us in our right to free speech. Without Amendment 1, National Coming Out Day might very well be silenced.

What am I saying?

I am saying at times we must stand with those whom we have had differences and focus on our commonalities to strive towards a greater good. In the process we may also change minds, create better understanding and grow stronger bonds.

Happy Coming Out Day! Let us celebrate our individuality while finding our similarities and standing together for our common good.

In a 1968 Black Chevy Pickup

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Always in a rush to get out the door, I would run up the stairs from my  basement bedroom to quickly sit at the corner kitchen table and wolf down the two eggs with bacon and toast Mom had just cooked to order. Then I’d quickly grab a shower, spike the blonde hair, get dressed, grab my homework, finished or not, and run out to my pickup. I had to be on time as I usually had several friends to pick up on the way to school.

1968 Chevy Pickup Truck (mine was a long bed with a white camper shell)

Upon turning the ignition, the under the dash slide in cassette player would start and the beats would pulse out the windows as I bolted out of the driveway. Cathy was almost always the first stop. I’d park on the gravel pull off beside her house and honk the horn like any self respecting rude to the neighbors teenager would at 7 am. If I was on top of my game her favorite morning tune would start playing as she crossed the threshold screaming back at her nagging mother on her way out to her daily ride.

From there it was usually off to grab Debbie, Adam, Eric and sometimes a couple others. There was laughter, singing, bitching, gossip and cigarettes. All of us smoked and we had to get those smokes in on the way. Thank god the back had a camper shell and padded shag carpet so there was pleanty of room.

Speeding into the parking lot we would come to a halt just out past the gym near the practice field. Brian would usually be right behind us in his 1972 Yellow Mach 1. Nearby the stoners would be getting their last toke in for the first period buzz. Debbie would grab one more cigarette. I’d lock up the truck and head over to the yearbook staff room to see what was up before first period geometry.

Today it all seems so simple. Then it seemed so big. I think of it and smile. I fill with gratitude.

Toe Tappin’ Tune

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This’ll get our weekend started!

1984 Jocelyn Brown Somebody Else’s Guy

1984…I couldn’t even legally buy liquor. My friend Kiki kept asking me to shave off young Fearsome because she liked my chin. I could be found every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening on the dance floor at my local gay disco, The Park. I was in an on and off again relationship with my first lover (usually off was with “somebody’s else’s” guy…sometimes the “somebody else” was another guy and sometimes a woman). I was an aerobics instructor and I made my first ever trip to Ft. Lauderdale Florida.

While criusing the A1A along the beach in Ft Lauderdale and listening to this very tune, in a black T-Top Trans Am mind you, I remember looking at the ocean front condo buildings thinking “My, those people must be rich”. Today we own a couple of those very condos.

Dreams, they really do come true.

The tune still makes me dance. Enjoy!

Dark Tunnels

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It happens.

The tunnel, it surrounds.

Many years ago it was overwhelming and I couldn’t deal with it. The tunnel would encompass my being, my consciousness and shut my life down.

These days it’s passing, fleeting. I feel it. It’s like pressure surrounding my head. Vision impairs and I can’t hold my head up. Then it passes as quickly as it came over me.

I don’t know exactly how I switched it a number of years ago. I do remember the year, 2006. I woke up and realized that it had been gone for awhile and without my anti-depressants as I had forgetten to take them. It just wasn’t there. I was ok and I was of meds. I somehow had switched.

Since the the darkness of the tunnel has re-appeared, as it has today, but fleetingly. I’m glad it’s no longer paralyzing.

I know that in 2006 I decided to live for the future and not wallow in the past. I believe that’s what helped facilitate my change.

Today I hold my head up.

Argent – Hold Your Head Up – The Midnight Special 1973

A Little Hurricane Music

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🎵They got hurricane parties every time it blows🎶

One of Fearsome’s favorite tunes.

We, The Better Half & I, own three investment properties down in Ft. Lauderdale Florida. ‘Tis why I make Fearsome go down there so much. All three are coastal and are now in the “Evacuation” zone.

Needless to say several hours have been spent the past couple days communicating and preparing. All properties are tenant occupied full time. As it turns it almost all of the tenants are actually evacuating. Thus this morning I have spent another four hours, all morning communicating, arranging and securing things from long distance.

The shutters are up. Arrangements have been made. Preparations done. Neighbors contacted. Emergency numbers exchanged. Back up plans made.

It’s crazy and we are in California. I couldn’t imagine being in the middle of it out there right now.

Now that I’ve done what I can to secure the buildings and help the tenants I’m going to sit back and tap my toes to our favorite Cajun beat. Hell I might even have a hurricane glass full of my favorite juice!

…oh …and we will be saying a little prayer as well.

Comic-Con 2017 Preparing for Preview Night

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Today’s LA Times featured this ARTICLE about Comic-Con’s famous Hall H, the most important room in all of Hollywood. If you definitely want to see Stars, you can see them in Hall H. In all of my trips to Comic-Con International I’ve never made it through the doors of Hall H. Comic-Con has yet to start and right now there are people camped out waiting for Hall H to open tomorrow morning. Hall H is the largest panel meeting space at Comic-Con, but it only holds 6,500 people and daily attendance at Comic-Con is merely 130,000. If I attend a panel, it’s in a smaller meeting hall with lesser known personalities and no overnight waiting lines.

Comic-Con for me is the convention hall floor. People watching nirvana. I’ll be there soon, say around 4:30 pm this afternoon, to grab my spot in line for the official opening of Preview night at 6:00 pm.

 

Happy Pride!

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It’s officially Pride weekend in here in beautiful sunny San Diego California!

Given we live in a state with three major cities, Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, Pride celebrations are spread out in order to allow celebrants the options to be able to celebrate more than once and not have to choose between. There are also celebrations on other weekends in various smaller, yet just as important, locations such as Long Beach and Palm Springs. Having our many California celebrations over numerous weekends also allows tourists from to catch a Pride celebration while traveling through California if they so desire.

My first ever Pride experience was in Seattle back in 1990. The city where I grew up didn’t have such a thing and my travels through east coast cities back in the 1980s never seemed to coincide with one. I haven’t missed a Pride since that first one in Seattle and my official relocation to the West coast.

For me Pride has so many more meanings that just being gay. Pride is love. Pride is joy. Pride is acceptance. Pride is understanding, forgiving, righteous, brotherhood, sisterhood, humanhood, sexuality, sexual identity, identity, political, non-political, peace, justice, black, white, brown, yellow, red, giving, gratitude, sharing, respect, service, caring…Pride is a place to just simply be yourself. Just be.

A tune from my dance floor days before that first ever Pride celebration surprised me on Sirius XM Studio 54 today. A tune that I had probably not heard since seeing Pamela Stanley perform it live during RSVP Cruise Lines 10th anniversary party in Puerto Vallarta back in 1996, which was probably about the 10th anniversary of the tune itself. A tune that seems perfectly appropriate to kick off another absolutely fabulous Pride 2017 weekend in lovely San Diego.

Happy Pride Y’all!

Fireflies

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Summer childhood memories.

Punching holes in a metal lid for the glass relish jar that in which I would later imprison several unlucky ones.

Lightning bugs, as I called them, were always a summer highlight. Little did I realize the depth of their striking beauty.

We don’t have fireflies here in Southern California. While I do prefer my SoCal summer weather over the sweltering humidity of my native southeast, I sure do miss my mesmerizing little friends.

Whats one of your favorite summertime childhood memories?

…oh and Happy Summer Solstice 2017!

Is your god dead?

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Fearsome Beard …a place for beards to contemplate and to grow their souls.

It’s been a while and it’s due time Fearsome did just that.

Contemplate.

Every human has their own personal right to have, or have not, a relationship with a power, an essence, a universe, an energy or a god of their own choosing. Common human decency, at least my common human decency, allows one to respect all others in their choices surrounding such personal matters.

I call the power of my choosing god. God is a simple word, or acronym if you will, that stands for good orderly direction, or group of drunks, or is simply dog spelled backward.  My god is love. Period. Love. (My dogs are love too, what a coincidence.)

How do I treat my brother? Do I show love? Do I respect? Do I even acknowledge?

Is my god dead?

How about you? Is your god, or something like it, dead?

The New York Times article under the highlighted word “HERE” below is worth the read whether you have, or have not, a source energy outside of yourself. The article is about being human. Being a good human.

Click HERE to go to said article and contemplate on a deeper level.

I’m not perfect. I will never be perfect. I can strive to be better. I can strive to remember to love, to remember to respect, to remember to share. I can try, and try to try daily. I can love.