From The Beautiful Mind of Melissa G.

Please meet Melissa.



Shes pretty  much notorious for  her cuteness (as you can see here).

You should know that I love her.  Dearly.  She has become such an important friend to me.  She makes me laugh and is willing to listen to me ramble about my complex feelings about pretty much everything.  She's awesome in every way imaginable.  And here she is to guest blog.  Enjoy.

Sara asked me a reeeeeeeeally long time ago to do a guest blog. Like, a really long time ago. I’ve started several, but as she is always so hilarious and charming in all of hers, I felt a lot of pressure. Will anybody like me? Will they scoff at my (self perceived) brilliance? I was doomed to fail from the start with these sort of expectations.

I decided that, instead of working on something witty and spectacular, I should just do an entry about a favorite recipe. The way to everybody’s heart is through their stomach, right? RIGHT?! So as such, you are about to read about my journey into the world of making fudge. Since I have a bit of hipster in me, I thought a fudge involving bacon would be a good idea. Maple bacon fudge, to be exact.

This fudge has only 4 ingredients and takes about 10 minutes to make, so no excuses! You will need the ingredients pictured (I’ll list them below as well) and a 9x9 cake pan, with the bottom covered in wax paper and enough over the sides of the pan so that you can pull the fudge out later for easy cutting.

3 cups (24 oz) white chocolate chips
1-2.8 oz package Oscar Mayer real bacon recipe pieces
1-14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
½-1 teaspoon maple extract (to taste)

Over low heat in a decently heavy pan, melt the white chocolate chips along with the sweetened condensed milk. 

Remove from heat, stir in maple extract and bacon. Reserve a bit of the bacon to sprinkle on top.

Pour into a 9x9 pan and sprinkle remaining bacon on top.

Now the hard part-waiting. I waited until it was cool-ish and then put it in the fridge and let it chill another few hours. When it’s completely chilled, take it out and cut it into squares the size of your choosing ☺

Fair warning: I have been told this is the best thing I’ve ever made and good enough to sell. I don’t tell them how easy it is, haha. Make with caution.

"Eye of the Storm" by Lovett

For the past week I have been fighting a head cold and not in much shape to post blog entries. Rather than making a full blog post tonight, then, I thought I would leave you with a music video. This "Eye of the Storm" by Lovett. The video is a prime example of steampunk imagery at its finest.

Born On This Day- May 31st... Rainer Werner Fassbinder

"It isn't easy to accept that suffering can also be beautiful ...it's difficult. It's something you can only understand if you dig deeply into yourself."

I am not really a fan of Teutonic art, music, theatre & film. I don’t need to sit through a piece by Brecht or listen to Wagner, but the Germans do invade the Poland of my senses on occasion: Kurt Weil, Kraftwerk, Marlene Dietrich, Heidi Klum, a certain German prison porn film.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a German filmmaker who enjoyed international fame, a flamboyant lifestyle filled with fervent fierceness, filthy sex, & flamboyant generosity. He was obsessed by the movies, making 35 feature films in just 13 years. He was openly homosexual, married twice, once with his boyfriend as best man, & supported a 30-grams-a-day cocaine habit by demanding his salaries in cash.

Fassbinder’s goal was win the Oscar for Best Director & "to be ugly" on the cover of Time magazine. He almost got his wish. In1982, after finishing work on the controversial film- Querelle, Fassbinder died from a combination of cocaine, barbiturates, alcohol & an agenda consisting of overworking & over-consuming.

Fassbinder surrounded himself with talented & overwrought  artists & performers, manipulated & loved them. They loved & hated him. He was vilified by the political Left & Right. Film critics & film goers abhorred & adored his work. He was a cultural icon who was discarded as a washout.

At the apex of his career, Fassbinder was a household name in Europe. His work was shown regularly on German TV. He won top awards at major film festivals. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) broke box office records in Germany & an enormous international hit.

The first Fassbinder film I encountered was Fox & His Friends in 1975. It is a cruel, churlish cruel film in which gay characters were placed at the center, but one in which homosexuality is simply taken for granted. An illiterate, down on his luck circus worker- Franz, played by Fassbinder, wins a fortune in a lottery & then loses it all when his rich boyfriend has him invest in his family’s failing business. Poor once more, Franz is deserted by the boyfriend & ODs on sleeping pills in a subway station.

Oddly, I loved Fox & His Friends & I was captivated by flamboyant Fassbinder, always in his worn leather jacket & fedora, shocking the status quo, the bad boy of cinema. I liked bad boys back in the 1970s.

But I wasn’t to see another of his films until 1982’s Querelle, with Brad Davis based on Jean Genet's brutal & erotic stories. The imagery from Querelle haunts me to this day. I had the film’s poster, torn from Interview magazine, on my fridge until it yellowed, turned brittle & fell apart, just as I would eventually.

Researching Fassbinder, he seemed to have been paranoid, vicious to his lovers; a shy young boy in a grownup, grotesque, giant body, a thoughtless user of his fellow artists’ talents & emotions, & a sort of genius who overindulged in drugs, alcohol, food & sex. Fassbinder was unable & unwilling to escape the things that were consuming him, the things he loved the most. Who of us has not?

"Homosexuals have been very self-pitying, & also most of them are dominated by a sense of shame, which the Jews haven’t had. The Jews have never been ashamed of being Jews, whereas homosexuals have been stupid enough to be ashamed of their homosexuality."

Promoção Avril & Fender

                         

Avril Lavigne postou em sua página oficial no Facebook, sobre uma nova promoção entre ela e a empresa Fender, em que você pode concorrer a ganhar uma guitarra de assinatura da Avril.

Want to win one of Avril's Signature Telecaster Squire guitars? Just fill out the form below and select Avril's signature model to enter!

Tradução: Quer ganhar uma das guitarras de assinatura Telecaster Squire da Avril? Basta preencher o formulário abaixo e selecione modelo de assinatura da Avril para entrar!

PARA CONCORRER, CLIQUE AQUI ! *Promoção não é válida no Brasil.

Fonte: BYavrillavigne

Born On This Day- May 31st... Denholm Elliot

Denholm Mitchell Elliott was a distinguished British character actor, well known for his stage, film & television work. He specialized in playing slightly sleazy/slightly eccentric & flawed upper middle class English gentlemen. His career spanned nearly 40 years, becoming a well-known face both in UK & the USA.

Denholm Elliott was born in London & made his film debut in 1949. He went on to play a large range of parts in films as diverse as Alfie, Trading Places, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Brimstone & Treacle, Maurice, & my favorite film of all time- A Room with a View. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as Mr.Emerson in my favorite film.


Although gay, Elliott was married 2 times (the first time to the British actress, Virginia McKenna) & starting in 1962, he had an open marriage to actress Susan Robinson, with whom he had 2 children.


Susan had long since become reconciled to her husband's boyfriends, & seldom felt jealous.On one occasion when he brought one of them, a young Moroccan, home to London; as a gesture of defiance she enjoyed an affair with a famous French actor while on vacation on Ibeza, & was reassured to find herself still attractive & desirable, & with no feeling of guilt. Her own sex life with her husband remained active. Susan Elliot:"Between us, he was always 100 percent masculine, both in bed & in taking decisions in our home life."

For his part, Denholm Elliott never inhibited Susan's own affairs ("as long as you don't fall in love & as long as you don't have anyone else's baby"), mainly because, as explained, it made him feel less guilty about his own indiscretions.


The assignations increased in number & frequency as the years passed until, as Susan noted in her biography- Denholm Elliott, Quest For Love, her husband's promiscuity became "almost a psychological disorder". Denholm Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, & died in 1992 of AIDS-related tuberculosis at his home on Ibiza, Spain. He was cremated. His widow set up a charity, the Denholm Elliott Project, in a hotel complex on Ibiza called Can Bufi, where people who are HIV positive could enjoy a free holiday.


Susan Elliott died in a fire at her home in London on April 12, 2007.

Considering Walt Whitman On His 193rd Birthday

When I write about individuals from history that were homosexual, I avoid using the term- GAY, because for me, there was no GAY before the 20th century, until I consider Walt Whitman on this, the day of his birth. Whitman was GAY, using the 20th/21st century definition.

Has there ever been a poet so thoroughly a man of this nation than Walt Whitman?  Whitman’s book of poetry- Leaves of Grass, holds the essence of being an American. It also reflects the ways in which America ideals have been sacrificed. Walt Whitman's personal life suffered much at the hands of the American taboo against sex.

Whitman is this country’s greatest embarrassment, if what he says about democracy is true, the American ideal of universal equality must embrace homosexuals, & same sex love. Whitman is a subversive & radical poet & American school children for the past 50 years have been carefully protected from exposure to America's greatest poet. I have always been an avid reader, & I did not read Whitman until I was finished with college, when my mother, of all people, gave me a volume of Leaves Of Grass as a gift.

A leaf for hand in hand;

You natural persons old and young!

You on the Mississippi and on all the branches & bayous of the Mississippi!

You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!

You twain! & all processions moving along the streets!

I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.

Walt Whitman was a true bohemian. He never gave into having a regular job occupation, & he was a singularly solitary man, probably not by choice. In 1819, Whitman was born in Long Island, NY. He did the usual things until he was 11, when he quit school. He ran errands for a lawyer & doctor, & then became an apprentice typesetter for a Brooklyn paper.

He taught school in several small villages in NY, & contributed articles to newspapers. In 1841 he left country life for the big city. In NYC he worked for newspapers as typesetter, reporter, feature writer & editor. Whitman took a life of theatre, cafes & nightclubs.

He went to art exhibitions, museums, the opera, watch the ships, & walked among the masses in the great city. His favorite activity was to sit near the hot, young, rugged carriage drivers, & cross back & forth on the Brooklyn ferry to mingle with the rough deck hands.  Because he was repressing his sexuality, he was a loner in a crowd, a spectator rather than a participant.

Sometime after 1855, when Leaves of Grass was first published, he experienced some sort of emotional crisis that transformed him from journalist to poet. In the manner so many gay men in NYC & San Francisco of late 1970s, he gave up being a dandy & became a hyper masculine clone.

Crowds of men & women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me.

On the ferry-boats the hundreds & hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose

& you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, & more in my meditations, than you might suppose . . .

I was one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest,

Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,

Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,

Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word.
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture, customs, tradition,

Yet now of all that city I remember only a man I casually met there who detained me for love of me,

Day by day & night by night we were together — all else has long been forgotten by me,

I remember I saw only that man who passionately clung to me,

 Again we wander, we love, we separate again,

Again he holds me by the hand, I must not go,

I see him close beside me with silent lips sad & tremulous.
Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking & breeding,

No sentimentalist, no stander above men & women or apart from them,

No more modest than immodest.

Unscrew the locks from the doors!

Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!

Whoever degrades another degrades me,

& whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

Through me the afflatus surging & surging, through me the current & index.

I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the song of democracy,

By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
Song Of Myself

When Whitman is taught in school as part of the canon of American literature, there is still much resistance to identifying him as gay, despite some fairly well documented evidence.

I share the midnight orgies of young men . . .

I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,


He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be condemned by others for deeds done,


I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

Whitman's notebooks of this period are filled with descriptions of bus drivers, boat men, & other "rude, illiterate" men that he picked up is really in the streets of Manhattan, & "slept with," often keeping notes of their home addresses. Excerpts from his Notebooks have been collected in Charley Shively's Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados:

Peter — large, strong-boned young fellow, driver. . . . I liked his refreshing wickedness, as it would be called by the orthodox.

George Fitch — Yankee boy — Driver . . . Good looking, tall, curly haired, black-eyed fellow

Saturday night Mike Ellis — wandering at the corner of Lexington av. & 32d st. — took him home to 150 37th street, — 4th story back room — bitter cold night

Wm Culver, boy in bath, aged 18

Dan'l Spencer . . . somewhat feminine . . . slept with me Sept 3d

Theodore M Carr — came to the house with me

James Sloan (night of Sept 18 '62) 23rd year of age — plain homely, American

John McNelly night Oct 7 young man, drunk, walk'd up Fulton & High st. home

David Wilson — night of Oct. 11 '62, walking up from Middagh — slept with me

Horace Ostrander Oct. 22 '62 — about 28 yr's of age — slept with him Dec 4th '62

October 9, 1863, Jerry Taylor, (NJ.) of 2d dist reg't slept with me last night weather soft, cool enough, warm enough, heavenly.

This is the 19^th century version of John Rechy’s Numbers!



As I have been noting the protests of the right wing & religious fundamentalists to the recent legislation adding references to gay people in history to the curriculum in public schools of California, I consider how liberating it will be for young gay people to acknowledge that the most American of poets was not just a homosexual, he was gay.


I recommend the excellent & very readable- Walt Whitman: A Gay Life by Gary Schmidgall.

Chineses lançam álbum de fotos de Avril Lavigne

Os fãs chineses de Avril Lavigne, sempre muito criativos e carinhosos, lançaram um álbum de fotos da cantora. Intitulado como 
Avril Lavigne My Story, o álbum possui 600 fotos de Avril durante toda a sua carreira, de 2002 a 2012. A obra não é autorizada, porém já está a venda no Ebay por $24,99 dólares. Confira as Fotos Abaixo:
  
 
  
Clique nas Fotos para ver em Tamanho maior! 

fonte: Avrilbrasil

Dollar Bill Slot Was Upset.

 

Dollar Bill Slot was upset.

 

Bathroom Sink was surprised to hear it.

And so was Bathroom Sink's brother, Kevin.

 

Parking Lot Light was pretty angry, too.

 

IKEA Wall and White Van were an angry blue pig together.

 

Messenger Bag said nothing and kept eating.

 

Stairway Railing also shut his mouth.

 

Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm, however, was very curious what everyone was so upset about.

 

Saturn Car didn't want to talk about it.

 

Train Bathroom Latch was told to shut up about it.

 

And even though Library Clock kept talking, everyone thought he was just crazy.

 

Children's Hanger tried to look on the bright side of things.

 

While Coat Sleeve insisted there was no bright side.

 

Child Seat Buckle laughed it off.

 

Emergency Light did the sturgeon face.

 

Expensive Dessert stared into space.

 

And meanwhile, Furniture Store Spool wondered about his bloody stools.

 

Wine Rack waited for everyone to shut up.

 

Ash Tray took a smoke break and waited, as well.

 

Suitcase sat there looking like an idiot.

 

(submitted by Tom Weingard)

While Backpack laughed and sat with her legs open like a slut.

Veja algumas Curiosidades

 Avril disse que adoraria trabalhar em uma fazenda para criar animais e estar sempre em contato com a natureza.

- Começou a andar de skate durante as férias de verão do segundo colegial, é poca em que fazia várias trancinhas no cabelo.

- Quando a cantora fez shows no Brasil pediu 80 pizzas em seu camarim!

- Aprendeu a tocar guitarra sozinha com 12 anos e aos 16 assinou contrato coma uma gravadora.

- Durante sua infância , sua mãe a chamava de little song bird, em portugues (Pequeno passarinho cantor).

 A rockstar diz que é vegetariana mas abre uma exceção quando se trata de hamburguer e carne de peru.

 Acredita que meio copo de vinho faz bem ao corpo;

- Avril queria ser policial quando pequena.

- Avril Lavigne não se dá bem com a cantora Britney Spears.

O clip “Complicated”, (o 1º de sua carreira) Custou 1 Milhão de Dólares.

- A Avril gosta de chiclete de canela! Até nisso ela gosta de ser diferente.

- Quando ela era pequena ela prendeu seu cabelo no liquidificardor e ele começou a rodar.

- Ela foi suspensa na escola três vezes por não fazer lições e começar brigas.

- Um dos países prediletos de Avril é a Inglaterra.

 -Avril já colocou uma barata na boca por U$ 100 dolares.

Créditos: Byavrillavigne

Saiba + sobre My Happy Ending

                                    

 "My Happy Ending" é uma canção de pop rock composta e produzida por Avril Lavigne e por Butch Walker para o álbum "Under My Skin" de2004. A RIAA dos EUA certificou com Disco de Platina com mais de um milhão de exemplares vendidos, e no Brasil, segundo a ABPDtambém de Disco de Platina devido a mais de 100 mil downloads pagos no país. E na Austrália com Disco de Ouro com mais de 35 mil CD Singles vendidos no país, segundo a ARIA.

"My Happy Ending" foi usado no filme "A Lot Like Lov", no seriado CSI, e na 4ª temporada do também seriado Smallville. Em coletânea a música esteve presente no álbum "Keynote Karaoke: Pop, Vol. 6". A Microsoft, lança um jogo chamado "Lips" com a música da Avril em seu trilha sonora. No site About.com fez uma lista das 100 melhores músicas do gênero Pop, no qual "My Happy Ending" ficou na 74ª posição em 2004.

fonte: Wikipedia

The Hottest Cover-Ups Under the Sun

On This Day In Portland History- May 30th... Vanport

I enjoy riding the MAX train. The bus always seems to have the odor of diesel, sweat & a slight hint of wet wool, & the MAX train is electrically powered & clean. I find the sound of the train pleasing. There is an on-going fantasy that I live in Westchester County & work in Manhattan, with the wife & kids picking me up at the station, in reality the wife is a husband & the kids are canine & except for the whiskey, my life is not Mad Men.

Living a life with low grade Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is not for the faint hearted. I feel a driving need to have “my seat” on the MAX: right hand side, very front behind the driver, the only single seat on the train. If I don’t get this spot I can become grouchier than usual. I start my trip in either direction just one stop from the beginning of the line; I stand a good chance of securing my favorite place. 


On a cool, rainy, spring weekday, I boarded the train & found my seat occupied by a hipster. I took a moment to center myself & breath, & then sat close to my favorite place in case it should become vacant.  I was joined in my seat at the next stop by a beautiful African-American woman of an indecipherable age, chic in her hat & gloves. 

With my nose in my book so that I would not have to engage in conversation, this woman dared to ask me: “What is that you are reading?”  I showed her the cover of Just Kids by Patti Smith & prayed that this elegant lady would not ask me to explain Robert Mapplethorpe & Patti Smith.

I have always held that everyone’s story is interesting if you can get them to open up. I told my seat partner how lovely she looked. She introduced herself as Coral.


10 year old Coral moved to Portland, from Texas, with her parents in 1945. They lived in Vanport, at the time, the largest public housing project in the USA. It was home to 40,000 people, mostly African-American, who worked in the Kaiser Shipyards. In a dramatic parallel to Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans, on May 30, 1948, at 4:05pm, a dyke holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15. The city was underwater by nightfall leaving its inhabitants homeless. Like Katrina, the government misled the population into believing that the damage would be slight. Many have attributed the poor response, in both cases, to the racist attitudes of officials, who neglected to respond appropriately to the destruction of a mostly black community. Amazingly, I now live in walking distance of what was once Vanport, now named Delta Park. 

Vanport before & after the flood

Coral spent 4 days searching for her parents. She was eventually reunited with her mother & father at a church shelter in NE Portland's Mississippi neighborhood. They settled in that part of Portland,  still a stubbornly segregated city. 

Coral would eventually graduate from high school & attend beauty college. She found employment at a downtown Portland salon that catered to colored ladies. She worked her way up to manager & when the owner retired in 1965, Coral bought the place & gave it the name- Coral’s House Of Hair.  

Even more impressive in racist Portland of the late 1960s, Coral & The House Of Hair became illustrious enough that she was approached to have her own 15 minute local TV show giving beauty tips to women of color. True Colors Of Beauty aired at 3:15pm, Monday- Thursday on KPTV. The show lasted 5 years. 

I was close to my stop. I told Coral that I had not expected to have such an enchanting & engaging ride into downtown. I gave her my card & offered to buy her lunch sometime. She has yet to take me up on the offer, but on the Max train yesterday, I glanced up from my book & outside of the window, & there was Coral, chic in hat & gloves. She smiled & gave me a wave. 

Al Gordon R.I.P.

Al Gordon, who wrote sketches for Jack Benny, the Smothers Brothers, and Flip Wilson, passed on 23 May 2012 at the age of 89.

Al Gordon was born on 21 April 1923 in Akron, Ohio. His parents moved to the Bronx in New York City not long after the beginning of the Great Depression. He was still attending Theodore Roosevelt High School in the Bronx when he joined the United States Army Air Forces. While he was station in the Azores an aeroplane carrying a group of entertainers had to make an emergency landing because of problems with the craft's engines. Mr. Gordon became friendly with two of the comedy writers in the troupe. Once World War II ended, one of the group of entertainers offered Al Gordon a job writing in Hollywood.

Following the war Al Gordon became a writing partner to Hal Goldman. The two went to work on The Jack Benny Programme in 1950. The two would write several episodes of the show, both on radio and on television, until it ended its run in 1965. In the Fifties Mr. Gordon would also write for such shows as The Pride of the Family, The Red Skelton Revue, and The Gale Storm Show.

In the Sixties Mr. Gordon wrote for such shows as Get Smart, F Troop, Captain Nice, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hourm and The Carol Burnett Show.  He also wrote for several Jack Benny specials. In the Seventies Al Gordon wrote on NBC Follies, The Flip Wilson Show, The Odd Couple, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Carter Country, and Three's Company. In the Eighties he wrote episodes of Too Close for Comfort and 227.

Along with his writing partner Hal Goldman, Al Gordon had a gift for being able to write great material very swiftly. The two men could literally produce sketches ready for broadcast in less than 24 hours. Messrs. Gordon and Goldman worked on some of the funniest episodes of The Jack Benny Programme. In "The Isaac Stern Show," when Jack finally realises he is not a great violinist, Rochester and Mary Livingstone enlist Isaac Stern to convince him otherwise. In "Jack Goes to Doctor," Oscar Levant becomes convinced Jack has had a nervous breakdown and takes him to see a doctor. In "Jack Locked in the Tower of London" Jack is, well, locked in the Tower of London. Many of the great one liners Jack Benny uttered throughout the show were written by Al Gordon. He was quite simply one of the best comedy writers from the early days of television.

Wedding gifts - Money or Meaning?

Between the two of us Adam and I have 9 weddings this year...MA MA! Thinking proactively about gift giving, I struggle with giving cash money, or a gift that has more meaning. I know if I were getting married that money would be my pref (you know a dollar makes me holla honey boo boo child!), but I also think its nice to have mementos years later that carry that special meaning. I can still remember my parent's champagne flutes from their wedding sitting on a shelf in our house most of my childhood. And the wall mirror and candle stick holders my Uncle Beaver gave them as wedding gift. When I get money for a birthday I typically end up spending it on something stupid like groceries or....booze. 


We are two weddings deep and cash money has been the theme. I mean, between all these weddings, who has time to think about gifts with meaning. 


So what's your preference, cash or class? 


(This video really has nothing to do with the post, but its too good not to relive. Here's hoping the Countess pulls another hit out this season of RHNY.)

Downtown Kenton... A Film By David Lynch

This post is a repeat, but I am having a day low on imagination, famous gay people having birthdays or even new music. Will you please forgive me, dear readers? 


I am off to a meeting of The Kenton Neighborhood Association, of which I am seated on the board, a small step on my way to world domination.

Coming home, I get off the MAX train at my neighborhood stop- Denver Avenue/Kenton.  The first thing I encounter, & I mean, this is right at the train station, is Dancin’ Bare, the neighborhood strip joint. Portland has more strips clubs, per capita, than any other American city. I am proud of that statistic. It is a great that a young girl with right charms can make a living while practicing her art.


The sign is special to me because, not only does this business have a name based on a not so clever pun (like so many of Portland’s Thai joints & nail salons), but they spell out the joke for you on the sign? Twice. Funny, huh?


As I cross the street where North Interstate Avenue & North Denver Avenue meet, I am greeted by a giant Paul Bunyon (recently added to the Nation Register of Historic Roadside Landmarks). He was built for a 1959 Lumber Expo held in the neighborhood. I think he is hot. He was recently given a new paint job as part of a new neighborhood street improvement in Kenton’s little downtown, which includes widened sidewalks, a bike lane, street art & new trees & plants.

Miss Darlene

I then cross North Denver Avenue to 7 Bucks a Whack. The Husband & I both get our hair cut here by Darlene. Miss Darlene is in her 70s, with bleached blond hair piled high on her head. She wears a great deal of makeup, painted on brows & wears a satin black tube top & hot pants.


Darlene cuts hair with a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth. As she puts on your apron she will announce in a deep cig & beer voice- “…what’ll it be baby? A number 1 buzz cut? You sure got a lot of hair for a bald guy.”  Darlene lives nearby on a houseboat & has been in the neighborhood forever. She will give you a running commentary on the politics in the Kenton neighborhood. Her little dog– Elvis hangs out in the shop & is dressed up in a variety of outfits, including full biker gear. She told the Husband that she likes to have lunch at Dancin' Bare because- "Baby, they got a delicious French Dip for just $5!". I somehow have trouble with Au Jus & stripper poles together. Darleen does my hair, goatee & eyebrows, plus the floor show…. all this for $7(I always give her $15)!

 Other neighborhood highlights include a Victorian mansion that is lit up with outdoor lights all year round, but not at Christmas & the lovely Laundro Mat & The World Famous Kenton Club.

The World Famous Kenton Club with a special claim to fame: a scene from 1970s Roller Derby film- Kansas City Bomber was filmed at the spot.

The Historic Kenton Firehouse

Downtown Kenton had one bar & one cafe- Kenton Station & many boarded up store fronts form the 1920s-1950s when we moved into the neighborhood a decade ago. But the neighborhood now boasts: the MAX line,  BOYS' FORT, a breakfast cafe, a Thai spot, a soul food joint, a coffee shop for mommies & babies, a flower shop, a terrific architectual salvage store, a world class bamboo nursery & bamboo objects emporium, a home brewing outfit, a paper/art supply store, a head shop, liquor store & police station at the same intersection, & an historic firehouse that is now the neighborhood community center & tool library. I even have my own favorite watering hole where I am greeted by name & my cocktail is delivered wiithout having to order- Pizza Fino.

I am including a few other choice pieces of signs, graffiti & a note I found posted at the MAX stop. When I get off the train, I think: “ah, it is great to be home”.