by Elliot Tiber. Before there was a Woodstock Concert, there was Elliot Tiber working to make a go of his parents’ upstate New York motel. The Jewish clientele who had frequented the Catskills had discovered Florida, and the upstate tourist business was dying. To save his family’s livelihood, Elliot put on plays and local festivals. In the process, he became the area’s issuer of event permits. He even used his own income from work as a Manhattan interior designer to support the family business.

In the summer of 1969, Elliot Tiber’s life changed in a way he never could have foreseen. Working in Greenwich Village, a mecca for gays in America, Elliot socialized with the likes of Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, and a young photographer named Robert Mapplethorpe, and yet managed to keep his gay life a secret from his family. Then on Friday, June 28, Elliot walked into the Stonewall Inn–and witnessed the riot that would galvanize the American gay movement. And on July 15, when Elliot read that the Woodstock Concert promoters were unable to stage the show in Wallkill, he offered them a new venue. Elliot soon found himself swept up in a vortex that would change his life forever.

TAKING WOODSTOCK is the funny, touching, and true story of the man who enabled Woodstock to take place. It is also the personal story of one man who took stock of his life, his lifestyle, and his future. In short, it is like no history of Woodstock you have ever read–(book dust jacket)

a writer, filmmaker, and photographer stuck in the gulag otherwise known as Toronto, Canada. He started out as a child, then quickly moved on to the production of homo punk fanzines and Super 8 movies. These productions helped launch the so-called Homocore or Queercore movement which corrupted a whole generation of homosexuals–(from Bruce LaBruce website)

directed and co-written by Chris Diani. In a small town in 1967, plucky young sissy Phillip is about to celebrate his birthday at the beach cottage owned by his best friend Stan. all of Phillip’s friends are gathered for the festivities, including Stan’s hunky-but impulsive boyfriend Billy, Billy’s shy, nerdy cousin Joseph, and Randall, the chain-smoking, bitter queen of the bunch. Meanwhile, a horde of libidinous gay men-turned into ravenous flesh-eating zombies by toxic mosquitoes at a cruisy highway rest stop-are making their way towards oblivious celebrants, eating every man in their path. With body parts washing up on shore and party guests disappearing, our heroes must find a way to stop the zombie onslaught. Will Stan keep the rotting corpses out of his spotless home? Will Joseph work up the courage to declare his love for Phillip? Can Billy keep it in his pants long enough to stay alive? And is Phillip’s cheating boyfriend coming to the party to save them, or to eat them? No one is safe in this campy mix of classic B horror flicks and pre-Stonewall gay melodramas.

a documentary by Roy Kirkland and Doug Sebastian. On the morning of Wednesday, July 21, 1993, an incident occurred in the small South Georgia town of Willacoochee. Two gay men were awakened to find a seven-foot charred cross in their front yard. Compounding the problem were comments made by a Willacoochee City Council member who said he was not surprised by the incident because the town is largely anti-gay. However the cross burning was just the beginning. A few weeks later their mailbox was destroyed followed by the death threats on their answering machine. Then the unthinkable occurred, their home burned to ruins. Roy Kirkland and Doug Sebastian had no idea that after all that happened, the worst was yet to come. This compelling documentary reveals how two men became victims of a hate crime and battled one of the largest insurance companies in the world. Fifteen years later, they tell their story about the time they lived through: “A Cross Burning in Willacoochee”.

author. I’ve posted how much I love “In the City of Shy Hunters”. He also wrote “The Man Who Fell In Love With the Moon”. Both are brilliant novels, and I look forward to reading more of his work. I suggested “Shy Hunters” for the LGBT book reading group that I joined, and was delighted when they voted to include it. It is such a Joy to know that we are in a world with such talented artists who walk amongst us. Tom is a treasure in our world. Read his books.

filmmaker. I just discovered a couple of his films on Netflix. “Luster” & “FAQs”. I adore his sensibility. He is a queer filmmaker & I love it!! I want this man to be supported in his artistry. See his movies. “Our kisses are like bombs in the straight world.”

a novel by Edmund White. New selection for the LGBT book reading group I now belong to. 03-09-10 Received it in the mail from Amazon & began reading last night. This could actually be the first book of Mr. White’s that I’ve read (though it seems like I am very aware of him, from collecting books of his through the years) So, the main character (is his name not used? I can’t seem to think of it) is befriending Maria & the artist “painters” next to his school. I’m very happy to be reading this novel, and hope to finish this book by the beginning of April. 03-25-10 Finished reading “Beautiful Room”. I believe the narrator’s name was never mentioned. Could this be because it was an autobiographical novel? This is a slice of life for an individual gay man in the 50s & 60s, but as a gay teenager growing up in the 70s, I could relate to many of the character’s experiences. I wonder how it is for the gay youth of today?

a novel by Mary McCarthy. I am reading this for a LGBT book reading group I joined last month. I ordered the DVD of the movie from Amazon, but will watch it after I finish reading the novel. So far (02-18-10) very entertaining, character building; in the middle of Chapter Four.

a film written, directed & starring John Baumgartner. Ernest Hardy of the L.A. Weekly writes: “Shot in black and white with an unerring eye for the era-specific detail of early silent film, writer-director John Baumgartner’s WAR STORY is so inventive that it works on at least a half-dozen levels: social commentary, film-geek homage, love story, queer theory, sly genre overhaul and straight-ahead romantic comedy. It triumphs on all fronts. Baumgartner has taken an overused device–a fictitious discovery of the masterpiece by a now-forgotten film genius (one Metly Moorville, alleged fore-runner of Chaplin, Keaton and Lloyd)–and infused it with freshness and wit. Moorville (Baumgartner), clad in little-tramp gear and cursed with empty pockets and a growling stomach, sets off to find a meal one day, but instead stumbles into a waiting gig at a restaurant where the boss is a tyrant and the other waiter a brute. Though Metly initially swoons over a female customer, he’s soon smitten by a cute male soldier who returns the ardor, but whose twin brother is a violent homophobe. Mistaken identity, workplace bigotry and burgeoning love are all conveyed through sharply choreographed slapstick and a consistent sweetness of tone that pays off in a final scene of lump-in-the-throat tenderness.” I couldn’t agree more; this movie has touched a special place in my heart!

(August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986) was an Anglo-American novelist. Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in the North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Brithish Army, was stationed. After his father was killed in the First World War, he settled with his mother in London and at Wyberslegh. Isherwood attended preparatory school St. Edmund’s, Surrey, where he first met W. H. Auden. At Repton School he met his lifelong friend Edward Upward, with whom he wrote the extravagant “Mortmere” stories, only one of which was published during his lifetime (a few others appeared after his death, and others sere summarised in his “Lions and Shadows”). He deliberately failed his tripos and left Corpus Christi College, Cambridge without a degree in 1925. For the next few years he lived with violinish Andr’e Mangeot, working as secretary to Mangeot’s string quartet and studying medicine; during this time he wrote a book of nonsense poems, “People One Ought to Know” (published 1982), with illustrations by Mangeot’s eleven-year-old son, Sylvain. In 1925 he was reintroduced to W. H. Auden, and became Auden’s literary mentor and partner in an intermittent, casual liaison, as Auden sent his poems to Isherwood for comment and approval. Through Auden, Isherwood met Stephen Spender, with whom he later spent much time in Germany. His first novel, “All the Conspirators”, appeared in 1928; it is an anti-heroic story, written in a pastiche of many modernist novelists, about a young man who is defeated by his mother. In 1928-29 Isherwood studied medicine at King’s College London, but gave it up after six months to join Auden for a few weeks in Berlin. Rejecting his upper-class background and attracted to males, he remained in Berlin, the capital of the young Weimar Republic, drawn by its reputation for sexual freedom. There, he “fully indulged his taste for pretty youths. He went to Berlin in search of boys and found one called Heinz, who became his first great love.” Isherwood commented on the Berlin sex underground, and his own participation in it, in a note to the American publisher of John Henry Mackay’s “Der Puppenjunge (The Hustler)”, “a classic boy-love novel set in the contemporary milieu of boy prostitutes in Berlin.” “It gives a picture of the Berlin sexual underworld early in this century,” wrote Isherwood, “which I know, from my own experience, to be authentic.” In 1931 he met Jean Ross, the inspiration for his fictional character Sally Bowles; he also met Gerald Hamilton, the inspiration for the fictional Mr. Norris. In September 1931 the poet William Plomer introduced him to E. M. Forster; they became close and Forster served as a mentor to the young writer. Isherwood’s second novel, “The Memorial” (1932), was another of his stories of conflict between mother and son, based closely on his own family history. During one of his returns to London he worked with the director Berthold Viertel on the film “Little Friend”, an experience that became the basis of his novel “Prater Violet” (1945). He worked as a private tutor in Berlin and elsewhere while writing the novel “Mr. Norris Changes Trains” (1935) and a series of short stories collected under the title “Goodbye to Berlin” (1939). These provided the inspiration for the play “I Am a Camera”, the subsequent musical “Cabaret” and the film of the same name. A memorial plaque to Isherwood has been erected on the house in Schoneberg, Berlin, where he lived. During these years he moved around Europe, living in Copenhagen, Sintra and elsewhere, and collaborated on three plays with Auden, “The Dog Beneath the Skin” (1935), “The Ascent of F6″ (1936), and “On the Frontier” (1939). Isherwood wrote a lightly fictionalized autobiographical account of his childhood and youth, “Lions and Shadows” (1938), using the title of an abandoned novel. Auden and Isherwood travelled to China in 1938 to gather material for their book on the Sino-Japanese War called “Journey to a War” (1939). In the opinion of many reveiwers, Isherwood’s finest achievement was his 1964 novel “A Single Man”. On Valentine’s Day 1953, at the age of 48, he met teen-aged Don Bachardy among a group of friends on the beach at Santa Monica. Although one can find Bachardy’s age at the time variously reported, in the biographical film “Chris & Don: A Love Story”, Bachardy himself recalls that, “at the time I was, probably, 16.” Despite the age difference, this meeting began a partnership that, though interrupted by affairs and separations, continued until the end of Isherwood’s life. The more than 30-year age difference between Isherwood and Bachardy raised eyebrows at the time, but the two became a well-known and well-established couple in Southern Californian society, with many Hollywood friends. Isherwood and Bachardy lived together in Santa Monica for the rest of Isherwood’s life. 04-07-10 Began reading “A Single Man” for the Los Angeles LGBT book reading group that I belong to.