Poem: In The Clouds

Throughout the day, at every turn, I see your face,

that sweet beautiful face that holds those beckoning brown eyes.

I feel safe and sound in those big strong arms,

the ones that hold me in tight, impenetrable ties.

I dream of those red, tantalizing lips, the ones that taste so sweet.

They haunt me and taunt me day and night.

I think of touching your body all over, everywhere

sweetly, gently, hungrily and making you feel so right.

Your laugh delights me and makes me smile.

Your truth is so refreshing and a blessing to me.

I am heartened by your kindness, gentleness and compassion,

the way I react to your electric touch is plain to see.

Each and every day that comes holds for me a goal,

the goal of loving, holding, supporting and caring for you.

So, my love, I hope you know, this day and everyday,

about you I am crazy and for you I'll be true.

Poem: Passion

Passion

You saw the love everytime you peered into my eyes.

You felt the need whenever I wrapped my arms around you.

You felt the warmth everytime you grabbed for my hands.

You knew the passion each day that door you walked through.

You experienced the fire during our lovemaking.

You knew the eagerness I had to taste and touch you.

You felt the satisfaction I had in making you moan with pleasure.

You knew the passion each day that door you walked through.

You lost the laughter I brought you each day.

You missed out on the luxurious trips that I would have brought to you.

You will regret losing the energy I brought that stirred up your life.

You lost the passion each day that door you walk through.

Poem: Revealed

Revealed

My most private secrets…

My most intimate desires…

My deepest hurts…

My worst fears…

…things that have never been revealed are brought into the light.

New are the words I utter, words that have never, to anyone, been said.

With you, my ever glowing soul shines so very bright.

With you, my hungry and yearning body, is always well fed.

I see you just being and the sight of you takes my breath away.

The words that I hear you say have never been spoken to me before.

I find myself falling deeper and deeper in love with you each new day.

I discover that I’m wanting you so much more and more.

Ripples…

Hurdles…

Old tapes…

…they creep up from time to time to try and make us lose focus.

But we know this is real; nothing fake here, no hocus pocus.

I am bound to you in every way I can be

You are mine and I am yours in every way.

If only you could view yourself the way my eyes see,

My love to you I pledge each and every day.

The nominations are announced

The nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards were announced this week and there were just a few surprises and, of course, some snubs (what a surprise!). However, it's always exciting seeing just who is nominated and the real fun is in predicting who will win. Those predictions will come later. Here's the breakdown of who's up for the little gold guy.

Best Supporting Actor: Notable snubs: Andrew Garfield for The Social Network, Josh Brolin for True Grit. Surprising nods: John Hawkes and Mark Ruffalo.

Christian Bale-The Fighter (1st nomination)
John Hawkes-Winter's Bone (1st nomination)
Jeremy Renner-The Town (2nd nomination, 1st supporting)
Mark Ruffalo-The Kids Are Alright (1st nomination)
Geoffrey Rush-The King's Speech (4th nomination, 2nd supporting)

Best Supporting Actress: Surprising nod (for this category): Hailee Steinfeld.

Amy Adams-The Fighter (3rd nomination, supporting)
Helena Bonham Carter-The King's Speech (2nd nomination, 1st supporting)
Melissa Leo-The Fighter (2nd nomination, 1st supporting)
Hailee Steinfeld-True Grit (1st nomination)
Jacki Weaver-Animal Kingdom (1st nomination)

Best Actor: Notable snubs: Robert Duvall for Get Low, Sean Penn for Fair Game, Mark Wahlberg for The Fighter and Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine. Surprise nod: Javier Bardem.

Javier Bardem-Biutiful (3rd nomination, 2nd lead)
Jeff Bridges-True Grit (6th nomination, 3rd lead)
Jesse Eisenberg-The Social Network (1st nomination)
Colin Firth-The King's Speech (2nd nomination, lead)
James Franco-127 Hours (1st nomination)

Best Actress: Notable snub: Lesley Manville for Another Year. Surprising nod: Jennifer Lawrence

Annette Bening-The Kids Are Alright (4th nomination, 3rd for lead actress)
Nicole Kidman-Rabbit Hole (3rd nomination, lead)
Jennifer Lawrence-Winter's Bone (1st nomination)
Natalie Portman-Black Swan (2nd nomination, 1st lead)
Michelle Williams-Blue Valentine (2nd nomination, 1st lead)

Best Director: Notable snub: Christopher Nolan for Inception

Darren Aronofsky-Black Swan (1st nomination)
David O. Russell-The Fighter (1st nomination)
Tom Hooper-The King's Speech (1st nomination)
David Fincher-The Social Network (2nd nomination)
Joel & Ethan Coen-True Grit (3rd nomination)

Best Picture: Notable snub: Secretariat. Surprising nods: Toy Story 3 & Winter's Bone

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

An Amazing Australian Adventure-Days 3-6

So, as the adventure down under continues, I've been lucky enough to experience some wonderful things so far. I was honored to be invited to a birthday party this past weekend with some native New Zealanders. A hangi feast was prepared with some truly delicious dishes and fabulous desserts. My favorite was the steak (a specific kind to Australians called wooky or something like that) and the sticky date bread with syrup. Not as sweet as it sounds and not as rich either but very yummy. Everyone was so welcoming and included me in all of the conversations and made me feel like a part of the group. It was very lovely.

The same night I had dinner with a couple of Brian's friends. The one, Michael, is a complete hoot. He is outspoken, flamboyant and very very warm and genuine....Could have used some time with him when preparing for my role in The Boys In The Band...Afterwards, we went to a dance bar called The Midnight Shift (think The Bachelor Forum with a multicultural feel and a dance floor).

Sunday, I went to the MCC church in Granville; Good Shepherd. Very welcoming community with a nice mixture of GLBT people as well as straight allies. In addition to the keyboard, they have drums and an electric cello. I was made to feel very comfortable and will be blessed to have the opportunity to sing during next week's service.

This week we'll be visiting the Blue Mountains and walking through the Featherdale Wildlife Park. I'm determined to have my picture taken with a kangaroo (even though I am told they are smelly, nasty creatures) and a koala bear (which really is not a bear...discuss amongst yourselves). They don't call it a koala bear here, they just say a koala.

I hope wherever you are today, you are having an adventure of your own....

To be continued....

peace,

Paul

An Amazing Aussie Adventure-Day 2

Last night was pretty uneventful. Went to Woolworth's to do some shopping. Woolworths (not to be confused with the American Woolworth's) is a massive supermarket, in fact, it's the largest supermarket chain in Australia. It's also known as Woolies, kind of like Wegman's is known as Weggies.

I neglected to mention during the jaunt around downtown Sydney, we saw some Aborignines playing didgeridoos. Cool instrument and the guys were even talking through it; saying thank you to people who put donations in their jars. If I get another chance, I will have my picture taken with one of them.

Today I walked around Earlwood and just looked around in a number of different shops; not buying, just browsing. I can't get over the currency. They don't have paper money for $1 and $2 (instead they use coins for these and the $2 coin is actually smaller than the $1 coin).

Early this morning around 6, it was raining a bit then it stopped and the sun came out. By late afternoon it had become overcast again. The high got up to about 62 degrees.

That's about it for today. This weekend sometime, I'll be attending a birthday party in which they will be "laying down a hungi" which I'm very much looking forward to. I promised the first round of pics would be up sometime on Friday (in Rochester time) and I will hold true to that.

I hope everyone is well.

peace,

Paul

Australian Adventures-Day 1

So, I arrived in Sydney at about 7:25 on Wed. morning (Sydney is 14 hours ahead of NY) so Rochesterians were just thinking about being done working for the day. Two things I neglected to pack: White socks and some sort of jacket (it is still winter here for about another month and a half). Thankfully today was up to 18 celsius (or about 60 degrees fahrenheit but it felt cooler thanks to the chilly wind). The city is HUGE (take that Billy Fuccillo) and it's so weird driving on the left side of the road and having the steering wheel on the right side of the car.

Today we walked a good bit of downtown Sydney, went up to the Sydney Skytower (similar to the one in Rochester) and looked at the city.....just miles and miles and miles of city. We also experienced one of the food halls (think a mall food court that has its own zip code) in the Sydney Downtown Plaza. We saw the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Glebe Island Bridge, among other things. We had a couple from Las Vegas take our picture in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge and she said it best about the cost of living in Sydney: The dollar is worth more than the American dollar but you need two of them to buy something for each US dollar.

For lunch Brian had Moroccan Chicken with chickpeas and I had roast lamb rump with lentil salad. Good food but it's weird because we ordered at the bar and were given a number to put on our table which was taken when the order was brought out. No one ever came over to ask how our meal was and we left without tipping. Apparently, in Australia, you don't tip and you don't usually have someone come over to refill your water, ask how your food is, etc.....Odd!

This evening we are going to one of the supermarkets. I've taken a ton of pics already and will definitely have the first album up on FB by Friday (your Friday, not my Friday).

More later.

Peace,

paul

Acapulco-the rest of the story

So, the rest of the Acapulco trip was exhilarating, exhausting and very informative. I was lucky to attend some pretty awesome workshops which I am looking forward to sharing with the congregation. Now for the big news....my review of Corpus Christi.

First of all, I remember hearing about this show when it first opened and hearing some controversy about it. A gay Jesus? Really? No wonder people protested it and it was such a flop for Terrence McNally. The original show cast all men...the tour cast we saw was both male and female which was very nice to see.

As the show opens, we see the characters being baptized and receiving new names (the names of the Apostles) and they briefly talk about their characters. The show follows the growth of Jesus (or Joshua as he is called) throughout high school, prom, adult hood and a very intense relationship with Judas Iscariot.

The show is done with no set, per se, very minimal props and lots of daring dialogue. I have nothing but high praise for it and I applaud all of the actors for their participation (not all of them were gay or lesbian or religious) and found the show hilarious, thought provoking, shocking (yes, shocking, even though I knew the story) and sad. I actually got teary eyed at the end. Not huge buckets of tears but just enough to have tears running down my face. The cast was also emotional as it was their final performance because they have no more money to continue touring. I think people should see this show if for no other reason then it will bring them out of their comfort zone and without that, growth is not possible.

peace,

Paul

Acapulco Day 5

Having a fabulous time in Acapulco. Even though I'm finding conference exhausting at times (typical), I'm really enjoying getting Spanish practice in. In a bit, I'm going downtown to a local farmer's market. Maybe have lunch with Jim and a Jesuit friend he just met who lives in Mexico. Oh, the decisions. Still gray, windy and while the rain has stopped, the beautiful sunshine is still nowhere to be found.

More later.

peace,

Paul

Debbie trying to get the pastor to relax.

menu from the restaurant and the hotel where the cliffs are

view from the restaurant to see the cliff divers. You can see one of the cliffs on the right.

more city pics including the Volkswagon taxis.

pics from the city in the tour van

Woody, is that you?

How much for three items????