With the first hard freeze, the pretty leaves have mostly shriveled and fallen. Luckily, I caught these just in time, as the last of the sunlight lingered into the afternoon. As we near the magical close of a calendar year, it is all barren trees and empty branches for the foreseeable future. The colorful beauty seen here is now a memory.
Once upon a time I made a gift registry for my birthday. It didn’t go over well. That was long before I had a website, in my younger, more delusional years. Most of the items were beyond ridiculous (a trend that I’ve carried through to this day, because if you ask for the Louis Vuitton train case for $4500 it lessens the sting of a bottle of Tom Ford for $210). The reason for this list is for those family members who always ask me what I want, and to give them an idea of what’s appealing to my fancy these days – a tricky bit of boxed-in business at best. My whims are fickle as the wind, but everything listed here is something I truly adore.
First up is a big-ticket item – that may, by the time you read this, have gone on sale at Macy’s (though it wasn’t as of Saturday in the Downtown Boston store) – it’s this Blackwatch Peacoat by Tommy Hilfiger. While I’ve made no secret that Mr. Hilfiger has never impressed me much, this coat, as well as last year’s line of coats, caught my eye. As long as that red, white and navy flag isn’t emblazoned over it, I’m more open to what he has to offer.
Second is a Frederic Malle fragrance, Dans Tes Bras, as depicted in the feature photo. It’s a fragrance I’ve flirted with for the past three years at Barneys New York and I’m finally ready to commit. In fact, this is the one I’ve long wanted, but could never quite narrow down. It’s by no means cheap, but here’s a little secret that the bitchy folks at Barneys would rather I not tell you: you can order travel size versions that are substantially cheaper – three bottles of 30 mL each comes to about half what  the starting bottle costs. And since I only use expensive fragrances for special occasions, I know how to make it last.
Since we’re speaking of fragrances, it would be an egregious error on my part not to at least mention the two new Tom Ford Private Blends that were just released, just in time for the holiday season. However, I’m not officially asking for either of them, though they are both decent. The truth is, both of the new Oud scents – Oud Fleur and Tobacco Oud – are wonderful, but not such distinct entities that it justifies their price points. (Yes, I said it: I’m foregoing a Tom Ford Private Blend or two when they’re redundant. In the case of Oud Fleur – my favorite of the two – I felt it was initially a charmed work, until it dried down to an eerily-similar version of Santal Blush (which I already have) tinged with Oud Wood (which I also already have). It did, however, give me the grand idea of combining the two. When it comes to fragrance, I always strongly advise against any sort of mixing and matching. For the Tom Ford Private Blends, combining similar scents usually results in something spectacular, so I’ll be giving the Santal Blush – my favored holiday scent – a supplemental boost of Oud Wood and seeing how they play out, without the hefty investment of having it done for me.
Finally, the real gift that I’d like more than any of the others (well, in addition to, let’s be honest) is a rather practical one:Â these wine glasses (8 each of the red and white sizes) from Crate & Barrel. I hesitate to say that they are the sole reason we are renovating the kitchen (the ability to fry chicken also contributes to that purpose), but they were definitely a consideration. Now that the work is about to commence, it’s the perfect time to update our selection.Â
As for the stocking stuffers (and those casual acquaintances who have been reaping the myriad benefits of this website without contributing so much as a hello) there’s also my  Amazon Wish List – to which I’ll add some new wishes. Remember the reason for the season: give ’til it hurts. Jesus would want it that way.
Andy’s birthday cakes from last month – one in tiramisu, and one in carrot cake.
A couple of years ago, I did a live-post day of entries for Veteran’s Day. I’d had the day off from work, and hadn’t made any other plans, so I spent the day doing not much of anything, but documenting it in photos. There were the obligatory naked shower shots, a series of breakfast prep shots, and a few late season rose shots. This year I don’t have the time nor the inclination to bore you with the mundane particulars of the day. (I’m actually driving to New Jersey to select granite for the kitchen.) In my absence, peruse the following links, brought to you by Novembers past.
We begin in appropriately timely fashion, with a treatise on time.
A rural throwback to last year, and a lifetime ago, in the sleepy expanse of upstate New York – Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
It’s almost holiday shopping season, and I’m not ready for another amateur hour.
One of my proudest moments: my stint as a Cheesecake Boy.
Keeping things delightfully (and shirtlessly) toasty, were the hunky likes of Matthew Morrison, Tom Daley, Quinn Jaxon, Tom Daley, some sexy footballers, and even more Tom Daley.
In further circles within circles, Kira and I have been rendezvousing in Boston for two years now, traditions intact. Up next: our holiday weekend where we walk around Boston (oh so much walking!) to look at the how the stores are decked out for the season. A few cozy stops for food and drink, and then a night of good cheer and company.
A coral bark maple was in need of some pruning, and its color was at its peak, so I clipped a few branches and plopped them into water for a fall party I was having. Anytime one tries an unexpected item for cutting, there is the risk of dismal failure. Especially when the cut comes toward the end of a season. Truth be told, I was expecting the worst – the one time I tried to cut a few stalks of bamboo, the leaves fell off almost instantly. (Literally before I could finish arranging them, they started to lose their grip.) A few stalks of a flowering cup plant shed so many stamens overnight that I was starting to think it was possessed. Yet for every few failures, there is a happy, unmitigated success, like this startlingly simple yet powerfully effective bouquet of dogwood branches from this past spring.
Unlike the staying power of those dogwood branches, however, this fall bouquet was quick to shrivel. Luckily, our fall party was set to last only a few hours, so it survived intact, waiting for the night to begin its final stretch of decay.
Once it started that downhill transformation, it moved quickly – drying out in a few short hours, spent from one final fiery show. In other words, if you’re going to attempt a bouquet of fall foliage, cut it just before the party starts because it will not last the night.
When I was kid, my family went to the Ko family’s home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and they came to our home for New Year’s Day. They were, and remain, our extended family, and Suzie has been my best friend/sister-figure literally since I was born (she is, and remains, two months older than me).
A lot has changed since my childhood, but somehow my family still manages to make it to the Ko home, wherever or whomever may assemble for it. This year we had to do it a little early, as Elaine and Tony are heading to Florida for the winter. Here are a few photos from the day, including the new and improved version of the kids’ table. (No, I no longer have to sit there.)
And finally, perhaps my two favorite photos of the whole batch: jello salad and Suzie trying on my outfit. A Thanksgiving complete before it even began.
Sometimes a banana is just a banana.
And sometimes you feel like a nut.
(Sometimes you don’t.)
This Saturday night I’m taking my friend Kira out for a very belated birthday dinner at Boston Chops. She loves a good steak, and that is the best place to find one. The bar is killer too – and any place that utilizes Luxardo cherries in their Manhattan is top drawer in my Auntie Mame scorebook. Here’s the review I wrote a while back after my first visit. I can’t believe it’s taken this long to return, but it’s the perfect time of the year for a hearty steak dinner – and a beefy Manhattan.
Better than that, as always, is the company of a dear friend like Kira. We have done so many fun things in Boston, most of them legal (a few not so much), and I know this will be another grand adventure deep in the South End. After-dinner options are wide open – we intend to take the night!
With the comprehensive two-part recap of the Madonna Timeline already posted (HERE and HERE) there is little more that needs to be said in preparation for the 100th entry of that venerable feature, but I’m going to occupy one more post with this preamble. (The official post will finally appear here in a few short hours.)
A trio of hints as to what #100 will be:
Do you ever feel like anxious because time is going by too quickly? For me it happens mostly when something like a crocus blooms, or a tree changes color. I feel glad that there is such beauty to take in, and I’m aware of how fleeting, and therefore precious, such a moment is, but accompanying such happiness is the nagging anxiety that this will not last. It feels like if I don’t acknowledge it, if I don’t honor it in some way, none of it will mean anything.
I guess that’s partly why I do what I do. Why I take pictures. Why I write things down. Why I created this website. It’s a form of documentation, a virtual staking of a claim that I was here – that we were here together – and that it matters, it’s always mattered, and it will continue to matter. It’s quite a stretch to liken a website to art, but the purpose is largely the same.
Behold, I am Coming Soon…
Yes, it’s already November, but much too soon to be this tired. However, such is the state I’m in, so this post is going to take an indulgent look back a year, to last November. It started in the aftermath of a political election, when I was feeling particularly dirty. The best thing to do when one feels dirty is to take a bath. (Of course, these things must be done gratuitously.) And you must have the right kind of soap.
After behaving so badly, it was time to go to church.
Luckily, there were other bad boys to pick up the shirtless slack, including Adam Levine, Â Keith Urban, Scott Herman, Chris Zylka, Brahim Zaibat, Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, Taylor Lautner, Wes Welker, Dean Geyer, Taylor Kinney, Josh Wald, and Matthew Mitcham.
And we could always count on David Beckham and his bulge, especially in his first and long over-due crowning. And this video.
As we await the 100th installment of the Madonna Timeline, last year we did a quick recap of some of the stronger entries.
This was, and remains, the only person who can give me fashion advice safely.
The proximity to the holidays always brings up happy memories.
Last year was easy – no idea how to follow it up this year.
I spent my first visit at The Out, where I let it all hang out, but only in the good light on the bed.
God, I guess I did get naked a lot. Well, do…
And always – always – there was the sanctuary of Boston.
That’s right, November. Thanksgiving time, and the holiday shit has already begun in earnest. I am so not ready for this jelly. Not yet. Let me finish the Halloween candy first, then we’ll talk turkey. Somehow I’m still on schedule, having just put in the order for this year’s Holiday Card – and though I say this every year, I think this one might be the most shocking of them all. (And after last year’s card, that’s no easy feat.) Back to present time, here’s a quick recap of everything that went on here in the last week. (Admittedly, it wasn’t much.)
Are you ready to ride this train? I honestly don’t think I am. Too late now…
My jockstrap-covered cock got removed from FaceBook and Instagram, (but my dick is safe for Twitter apparently!) resulting in a spike of traffic for this very website. Here, this gasoline will put out my fire much faster.
One of my favorite small trees is making its final glorious show for the season: the coral bark Japanese maple. A late-season hydrangea gives it a run for its money. But in this light, everything looks good.
While the weather took a turn for the chilly, the parade of Hunks kept things warm and toasty. It’s hard not to get a little hot and bothered upon seeing the shirtless likes of Chris Hemsworth, Rodiney Santiago, Reichen Lehmkuhl,  Daniel Osborne and a double post of Ben Cohen: here and here.
Halloween was, as always, a total bore.
Musically, the week was uncharacteristically devoid of Madonna, but this gem by Mika and a timely classic by Guns N’ Roses kept things rolling. (Not to worry, Madonna will be back in a major way – in the meantime, feast on this and this to see how far we’ve come.)
Won’t you take a lick of my honey stick?
My very first hike was a smashing success. And by that I mean I didn’t fall and break my ass or require a search and rescue mission. It was the perfect day, affording so many great shots that I had to break it down into three parts: Part 1: The Hike, Part 2: The Cliffhanger, and Part 3: The Retreat.
On an early Sunday morning at Brandeis, I sit in the mostly-empty student center, shortly after Day Light Savings has turned back the clocks. It’s a slightly surreal pocket of time, this extra hour coming at this time of the year, an hour that will plunge me into darkness by the end of tomorrow’s classes. And then the early darkness will stay until the spring. For now it is enough of a novelty to be appreciated, a trick of the rules that humans have put in place to make some sense of the world.
In those days, I used to try to do something meaningful with that hour, some sign of gratitude for the return of what had been given up in the spring, when sacrifices were easier to make. I never quite managed to do anything substantial, though I like to think that acknowledging it and dwelling on it counts for something. In awareness there is sometimes honor.
