Alan Bowne (1945 – November 26, 1989)

Alan Bowne (1945–1989) was an American playwright and author. He was a member of the New Dramatists.

He wrote a number of plays including Beirut, Forty-Deuce, Sharon and Billy, and The Beany and Cecil Show, many of which are available from Broadway Play Publishing Inc..

He also wrote one novel Wally Wonderstruck. He died of complications related to AIDS at the age of forty four.

Alan Bowne's play Beirut was adapted to the TV screen as Daybreak (Bloodstream) (1993) starring Cuba Gooding Jr and Moira Kelly.

The film is a dystopian science fiction thriller set in the near future in a more authoritarian America. It deals with the social persecution and criminalisation of people who are infected with a sexually transmitted disease similar to HIV. Those who test positive for the disease are forcibly placed into quarantine camps. In the quarantine camps they are tattooed with a P by the authorities to indicate their positive status and shot if they try to escape. The quarantine camps are dilapidated places where patients are left to die without care or contact with the outside world.

Moira Kelly plays Blue a young woman who earns a living scavenging metal in the city. She goes with a friend who wants to be tested to a Helping Hand clinic. The clinic has the sinister slogan "Making your hard choices easier". Outside the clinic they are given a card warning them against getting tested there. The card demands "Why is sickness a crime? Why is hospital a prison? Why does the helping hand hold a gun?". Blue is disturbed by this warning and meets an activist in the resistance called Torch played by Cuba Gooding Jr.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Bowne

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Cyril Connolly (September 10, 1903 – November 26, 1974)

A major figure on the British literary scene during the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s, critic Cyril Connolly was, with Peter WATSON, one of the founders and editors of Horizon, an influential literary magazine. His reviews in the Observer and the Sunday Times attracted a wide audience.

Connolly was married three times, but at the time of his first marriage he wrote to a former schoolmate, “Of course, the problem is that I am still homosexual, emotionally.”

Gale Temple, in an article about Henry JAMES, describes Connolly, like James, as being in a state of permanent adolescence, “a melancholic yearning for his days at Eton when sexually undifferentiated forms of intragender camaraderie and togetherness imbued life with seemingly infinite promise.”

Frank Kermode, writing in the New Republic, described Connolly thus: “Although plump and far from handsome, he seems to have had a powerful attraction for women, or anyway for those who responded to his appeals for pity and agreed with his opinion that a chronic shortage of cash and the consequent need to work at something—writing reviews, for instance—was preventing him from producing a work of genius, which was the only kind of work, he believed, worth bothering about.”

Stern, Keith (2009-09-01). Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals (Kindle Locations 3691-3701). Perseus Books Group. Kindle Edition.

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Joey Stefano (January 1, 1968 – November 26, 1994)

Joey Stefano (January 1, 1968 – November 26, 1994) was an American pornographic actor who appeared in gay adult films.

Born Nicholas Anthony Iacona, Jr., Stefano grew up in the Philadelphia area (Chester, Pennsylvania). His father died when he was 15. After several years of prostitution and hard-core drug use in New York City, Stefano moved to Los Angeles and quickly became a star in gay pornography. In addition to his good looks, his persona as a "hungry bottom" (sexually submissive but verbally demanding) contributed to his popularity.

His image and success caught the attention of Madonna, who used him as a model in her 1992 book Sex.

During his lifetime, he was the subject of rumors (some of them spread by himself) regarding his relationships with prominent entertainment industry figures who were known to be gay. At a May 1990 dinner and interview with Jess Cagle (Entertainment Weekly) and Rick X (Manhattan Cable TV's The Closet Case Show), Stefano discussed an alleged series of "dates" with David Geffen, who at one point implored Stefano to quit using drugs. After the videotaped interview appeared on Rick X's show, OutWeek Magazine "outed" Geffen, who went on to announce his homosexuality at an AIDS fundraiser.

He was HIV positive. According to a subsequent biography Stefano died of speedball overdose (cocaine, morphine, heroin, and ketamine.) Officially his death certificate states he died on 11/21/1994 at age 26 in room 122 at the La Brea Motel on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California from "multiple drug intoxication". He was buried in a family plot in Linwood, PA. He is buried next to his grandfather in an unmarked gravesite. Persons attending the funeral stated his father's cremated ashes were buried with his casket in the same grave. Later his headstone was removed by the family due to vandalism.

Stefano's life is chronicled in the book, Wonder Bread and Ecstasy: The Life and Death of Joey Stefano by Charles Isherwood. His life is also the subject of a one-man-play, Homme Fatale: The Fast Life and Slow Death of Joey Stefano, by Australian playwright Barry Lowe.

X-Rated, a film based on his life is also set to release in 2013.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Stefano

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Rainbow Awards pre-party and 7th anniversary (Day 26)

November 2013 marks the 7th anniversary since I opened my first journal (and yes, I have an itch, but I will scratch it!), on LJ, and the 5th anniversary of the Rainbow Awards. So, of course I decided for a big bash party. 190 authors, all of them in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, have donated or an ebook, or a print book, and I will use them for a Treasure Hunt. Every day, for all November, I will post 6 excerpts (a random page of the book). No reference to title, or author, or publisher. You have to match it with the book ;-) comment on the blog (do not leave anonymous comments, if you post as anonymous, leave a contact email (comments are screened)), you can comment 1 time for more matchings (you can even try for all 6 books if you like, so 6 chances to win every day). Until the end I will not say which matching is right, so you will have ALL month to try. No limit on how many books you can win, the more you try the better chance you have to win. End of November, among the right matchings, I will draw the winners. So now? let the game start!

Be aware that these previous excerpts: 11, 23, 25 have not yet been matched, so if you go back there is good chance to win them! if at the end of the treasure hunt they will be still unmatched they will go to the one who matched more books.

The books are (Author - Title - Format of prize):

( The books are (Author - Title - Format of prize) )

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Today excerpts are:

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