Bruce Benderson (born August 6, 1946) is an American author, to Jewish parents of Russian descent, who lives in New York. He attended William Nottingham High School (1964) in Syracuse, New York and then Binghamton University (1968). He is today a novelist, essayist, journalist and translator, widely published in France, less so in the United States.

In 2004, Benderson's lengthy erotic memoir Autobiographie érotique, about a nine-month sojourn in Romania, won the prestigious French literary prize, the Prix de Flore. The book was published in the United States (Tarcher/Penguin) and the United Kingdom (Snow Books) in 2006 under the title The Romanian: Story of an Obsession.

Benderson's book-length essay, Toward the New Degeneracy (1997), looks at New York’s Times Square, where rich and poor once mixed in a lively atmosphere of drugs, sex, and commerce. Benderson argues that this kind of mingling of classes has been the source of many modern avant-garde movements, and he laments the disappearance of that particular milieu. His novel User (1994) is a lyrical descent into the world of junkies and male hustlers. He is also the author of James Bidgood (Taschen, 1999), about the maker of the cult film Pink Narcissus.

A book-length essay by Benderson, "Sexe et Solitude," about the extinction of urban space and the rise of the Internet, was published in French in 1999. A collection of his essays, published under the title "Attitudes," appeared in French in 2006. These essays, along with "Sexe et Solitude" and "Toward the New Degeneracy," were printed in America in a nonfiction anthology of Benderson's writings entitled "Sex and Isolation" (University of Wisconsin Press, 2007), which was cited as one of the 10 best university press books of the year by the magazine "Foreword." The year 2007 also saw the publication in French (Editions Payot & Rivages) of a new novel by Benderson called "Pacific Agony," a caustic satire of life in America's Pacific Northwest, as well as Benderson's personal illustrated encyclopedia of the 60s and 70s, "Concentré de contreculture" (Editions Scali), published in French only. The novel "Pacific Agony" was published in English by Semiotext(e)/MIT in fall 2009.

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

I first read Bruce Benderson‘s novel User a couple of years after its debut in 1995. Stirring, seductive prose sucked me right into this exhaustive portrayal of urban prostitution and drug addiction in early 1990‘s Times Square. From the first page, a soiled, silken procession of words rendered me weak-kneed, incapable of pulling out until long after its final avian image had flown. Reading it again ten years later confirmed my original feelings. This is a remarkable novel.
[...]
Benderson shows us that everyone is a user and is used as well. To be used is not always to be abused. At times, it benefits the used more than the user. Sometimes, both parties benefit, sometimes neither. There is the temptation to wonder who benefited more in the making of this novel, Benderson or those who were used as the basis of its characters.
[...]
It was in late March of 2007, that I went to a celebration for the Romanian writer Ruda Popa at the Russian restaurant Samovar in Manhattan. The friend I was to meet there didn‘t make it. Upstairs in the salon, I took a seat at the white U-shape made of long tables pushed together. I could not avoid noticing the garish makeup of the 60-or-so-year-old woman who sat next to me. Adroit with a worn down pencil, she calculated her way through several puzzles in a small Sudoku book. Her cloying perfume mingled mercilessly in my head with the mind-altering shot glasses of vodka I downed as they were offered to me on silver trays. As soon as the guest of honor finished talking, she sighed and pushed her chair back away from the table. I recognized Bruce Benderson sitting on the other side of her. I had heard him read years before during one of the many readings hosted by C. Bard Cole in the East Village. This time I introduced myself and we spent the next several hours together talking about all manner of things including his desire not to be labeled gay and the sad fact that his new novel, Pacific Agony would probably not be published in English. Benderson‘s caustic yet cavalier wit did not disappoint. --Rob Stephenson, The Lost Library: Gay Fiction Rediscovered

Further Readings:

The Romanian: Story of an Obsession by Bruce Benderson
Reading level: Ages 18 and up
Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Tarcher (February 2, 2006)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1585424781
ISBN-13: 978-1585424788
Amazon: The Romanian: Story of an Obsession

Winner of the 2004 Prix de Flore-one of France's most distinguished literary prizes-a wildly romantic, true-life love story

History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories," writes Bruce Benderson in this brutally candid memoir.

"What astonishes and intrigues is Benderson's way of recounting, in the sweetest possible voice, things that are considered shocking," wrote Le Monde. What's so shocking? It's not just Benderson's job translating Céline Dion's saccharine autobiography, which he admits is driving him mad; but his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian in "cheap club-kid platforms with dollar signs in his squinting eyes," whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe.

Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romanian culture and discovers an uncanny similarity between his own obsession for the Romanian (named Romulus) and the disastrous love affair of King Carol II, the last king of Romania (1893-1953). Throughout, Benderson-"absolutely free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself," wrote Le Monde-is sustained by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.

More Spotlights at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

Esera Tavai Tuaolo (born July 11, 1968) is a retired American professional football player. He was a defensive tackle in the National Football League (NFL) for nine years.

Tuaolo, who is of Samoan ancestry, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and was raised in poverty in a banana-farming family in Waimanalo. His father died when Tuaolo was ten years of age.

He played college football at Oregon State University and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was selected in the 1991 NFL Draft. Nicknamed "Mr. Aloha", Tuaolo played nose tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the Super Bowl in 1999 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career.

He also recorded the last tackle of football legend John Elway.

In 2002, having retired from sports, he announced to the public that he is gay, coming out on HBO's Real Sports. This made him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons. He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation. He also made an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2004 to share his coming out story as well.

In 2006, Tuaolo sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games VII, a quadrennial Olympics-style event. During his career with the Packers, Tuaolo once sang the anthem before a game against the Chicago Bears. Kopay administered the official's oath during the opening ceremony. Also that year, he testified at the State Legislature Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in opposition to an anti-gay-marriage bill.

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Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esera_Tuaolo

Further Readings:

Alone in the Trenches: My Life As a Gay Man in the NFL by Esera Tuaolo (2006)
Paperback: 296 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks (June 1, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1402209231
ISBN-13: 978-1402209239
Amazon: Alone in the Trenches: My Life As a Gay Man in the NFL

This is Esera Tuaolo's own searing story of terror and hope. A Samoan raised on a Hawaiian banana plantation, he had a natural talent, football. He went on to play for five NFL teams: the Green Bay Packers, the Minnesota Vikings, the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Carolina Panthers, and the Atlanta Falcons in the 1999 Super Bowl. But for the nine years he played professional football he lived in terror that when his face flashed upon the TV screen, someone would divulge his darkest secret. Esera Tuaolo is gay.

Alone in the Trenches takes you inside the homophobic world of professional football and describes fears that almost drove him to suicide. He evokes heartbreak--how his older brother, Tua, died of AIDS--and hope when, Esera, a deeply devout Christian fell in love and started a family.

More Spotlights at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Lists/Gay Novels

Greg Berlanti (born May 24, 1972) is an American television writer, producer and director. He is the creator of the cult television series Everwood and co-creator of Jack & Bobby, No Ordinary Family, and Arrow. He also co-wrote the 2011 DC Comics film Green Lantern. TMZ reports that Greg Berlanti is dating since May 2013 Robbie Rogers, who plays for the LA Galaxy and is one of 2013 OUT100 honorees. (P: Genevieve. Greg Berlanti, 2012)

Berlanti was born in Rye, New York. His parents are Barbara Moller Berlanti and Eugene Berlanti. Greg has one sister, Dina and is the uncle of two nieces. He has Italian and Irish ancestry. He described his early life in an August 2004 interview with Entertainment Weekly: "We were Italians in a town of WASPs" and his family was not "doing as well as 90% of the community." The Berlanti Television production logo, which follows each episode of shows he produces, features a family with their backs to the audience and the spoken quote, "Greg, move your head!" This is an homage to Berlanti's father, Gene, who would yell at Greg when he was blocking the television screen.

He is the writer, creator, and producer behind several creative and lauded television series, including ABC's Brothers & Sisters, Eli Stone, and Political Animals. He got his start in television as a writer and executive producer on Dawson's Creek before going on to create two of the WB's most critically acclaimed dramas, Everwood and Jack & Bobby.

Berlanti co-wrote and co-produced the DC Comics film Green Lantern, as well as directed the 2010 film Life As We Know It, starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel. He is set to produce Pan for Warner Bros. under his Berlanti Productions banner. The film is due for released on July 17, 2015.


Greg Berlanti (born May 24, 1972) is an American television writer, producer and director. He is the creator of the cult television series Everwood and co-creator of Jack & Bobby, No Ordinary Family, and Arrow. He also co-wrote the 2011 DC Comics film Green Lantern. TMZ reports that Greg Berlanti is dating since May 2013 Robbie Rogers, who plays for the LA Galaxy and is one of 2013 OUT100 honorees. In February 2013, Rogers came out as gay, becoming the second male footballer in Britain to do so.

( Read more... )

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_Rogers

( Further Readings )

More LGBT Couples at my website: www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Real Life Romance

Catherine Lundoff (born March 30): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4277978.html

Catherine Lundoff is an author and editor, with 5 books currently in print/available as ebooks. She writes in multiple genres including science fiction and fantasy, erotica and romance. Hellebore and Rue co-edited with JoSelle Vanderhooft won a 2011 Rainbow Award as Best Lesbian Sci-fi/Fantasy, 3rd place: the essence of fantasy is magic and the folklore of women has often dwelt on the innumerable powers they possess. Magic that heals, magic that destroys, magic that saves their community.

Hollis Frampton (March 11, 1936 – March 30, 1984): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3524275.html

Hollis Frampton was an American avant-garde filmmaker, photographer, writer/theoretician, and pioneer of digital art. His most significant work is arguably Zorns Lemma, a film which drastically altered perceptions towards experimental film at the time. He was seen as a structural filmmaker, a style that focused on the nature of film itself. In an interview with Robert Gardner he stated a discomfort with that term because it was too broad and didn't accurately reflect the nature of his work.

Michael Jeter & Sean Blue: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4277445.html

Michael Jeter was a Tony– and Emmy-winning American actor of film, stage, and television. He his best known as Herman Stiles on the sitcom Evening Shade from 1990 until 1994 and for playing Mr. Noodle's brother, Mr. Noodle on Elmo's World from 2000 until 2003. His film roles include Zelig, Waterworld, Air Bud, The Green Mile, Jurassic Park III and The Polar Express. He died on March 30, 2003. Although he had HIV, he had been in good health for many years. His partner since 1995 was Sean Blue.

Nella Larsen (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3524544.html

Constrained by the social conventions of the time, the bisexual African-American novelist Nella Larsen was covert in her treatment of lesbianism. In the late 1920s, she published two major novels: Quicksand (1928), for which she received the Harmon Foundation Bronze Award, and Passing (1929). She was accused of plagiarism in her short story "Sanctuary." During the final thirty years of her life, forgotten by the literary world, she was found dead in her apartment in 1964.

Nick Enright (December 22, 1950 - March 30, 2003): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/2828183.html

Nick Enright (22 December 1950 - 30 March 2003) was an Australian playwright. He wrote the book of the original version of The Boy from Oz. He edited Holding the Man, a memoir by his former NIDA student, Timothy Conigrave, and, following Conigrave's death, saw it to publication by Penguin Books. n June 2004 he was posthumously made a Member of the Order of Australia for 'service to the performing arts, particularly as a playwright, teacher, actor, director, and as a mentor of emerging talent'.

Paul Verlaine & Arthur Rimbaud: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1407682.html

Arthur Rimbaud sent Paul Verlaine two letters containing several of his poems. Verlaine, who was intrigued by Rimbaud, sent a reply that stated, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you." Rimbaud arrived in late September 1871. Rimbaud and Verlaine began a short and torrid affair. On the morning of 10 July 1873, Verlaine bought a revolver. That afternoon Verlaine fired two shots at Rimbaud, wounding him. Rimbaud and Verlaine met for the last time in March 1875, in Stuttgart, Germany.

Susan Juby (born March 30, 1969): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/843339.html

"I was a lunatic for horses when I was younger. I owned horses and I became obsessed with an equestrian sport called dressage. I quit riding when I left home for college, but part of me always thought I could have been a "contender". (In retrospect, I'm not sure why I would have thought that.) The story was initially about two girls, but soon I fell in love with a secondary character, a boy named Alex, and the book became mainly about him. That is my most recent book, Another Kind of Cowboy."

Suzy Solidor & Tamara de Lempicka: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4277574.html

Suzy Solidor was a French singer and actress, appearing in films such as La Garçonne. Solidor met Tamara de Lempicka sometime in the early 1930s and Suzy asked the artist to paint her. Tamara agreed, but only if she could paint Solidor in the nude. Solidor agreed and the painting was finished in 1933. In 1941 she recorded the song "Lili Marleen" with French words by Henri Lemarchand and was popular with German officers. After the war she was convicted by the Épuration légale as a collaborator.

Wade Rouse (born March 30): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1212561.html

We all dream it. Wade Rouse actually did it. In At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream, Wade and his partner, Gary, leave culture, cable, and consumerism behind and strike out for rural Michigan–a place with fewer people than in their former spinning class. There, Wade discovers the simple life isn’t so simple. Battling blizzards, bloodthirsty critters, and nosy neighbors equipped with night-vision goggles, Wade is sorely tested with humorous and humiliating frequency.

Bruce Weber (born March 29, 1946 in Greensburg, Pennsylvania) is an American fashion photographer and occasional filmmaker. He is most widely known for his ad campaigns for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Pirelli, Abercrombie & Fitch, Revlon, and Gianni Versace, as well as his work for Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair, Elle, Life, Interview, and Rolling Stone magazines.

Weber's fashion photography first appeared in the late 1970s in GQ magazine, where he had frequent cover photos. Nan Bush, his longtime companion and agent, was able to secure a contract with Federated Department Stores to shoot the 1978 Bloomingdales mail catalog. He came to the attention of the general public in the late 1980s and early 1990s with his advertising images for Calvin Klein. His straightforward black and white shots, featuring an unclothed heterosexual couple on a swing facing each other, two clothed men in bed, and model Marcus Schenkenberg barely holding jeans in front of himself in a shower, catapulted him into the national spotlight. His photograph of Calvin Klein of Olympic athlete Tom Hintnaus in white briefs is an iconic image. He photographed the winter 2006 Ralph Lauren Collection.

After doing photo shoots for and of famous people (many of whom were featured in Andy Warhol's Interview magazine), Weber made short films of teenage boxers (Broken Noses), his beloved pet dogs, and later, a longer film titled Chop Suey. Weber directed Let's Get Lost a documentary about jazz trumpeter Chet Baker.

Weber's photographs are occasionally in color; however, most are in black and white or toned shades. They are gathered in limited edition books, including A House is Not a Home and Bear Pond, an early work which shows, among other models, Eric Nies from MTV's The Real World series.

Weber began collaborating with crooner Chris Isaak in the mid-1980s. In 1986, he photographed Isaak for his second album, Chris Isaak. In 1988, he photographed a shirtless Isaak in bed for a fashion spread in Rolling Stone. Isaak appeared in Let's Get Lost and Weber has directed a music video for Isaak.


Roberto Bolle

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Weber_(photographer)

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( Further Readings )

More Photographers at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Adrienne Rich & Michelle Cliff: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3520516.html

Adrienne Rich was a poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse." In 1976, Rich began her lifelong partnership with Jamaican-born novelist and editor Michelle Cliff. In 1979, she received an honorary doctorate from Smith College and moved with Cliff to Montague. Rich and Cliff were editors of LGBT journals.

Binkie Beaumont & John Perry: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4274118.html

Binkie Beaumont was a British theatre manager and producer, sometimes referred to as the "éminence grise" of the West End Theatre. John Perry, actor, playwright, theatrical agent, was one of the last surviving members of H.M. Tennent Ltd - "the Firm", as it was known - which under the management of Hugh "Binkie" Beaumont dominated the West End and provincial theatres for more than 30 years. In 1938 John Gielgud's then partner, Perry, fell for and moved in with Beaumont.

Edith Craig, Christabel "Christopher" Marshall and Clare "Tony" Atwood: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4273744.html

Edith Craig was a prolific theatre director, producer, costume designer and early pioneer of the women's suffrage movement in England. She was the daughter of actress Ellen Terry and architect-designer Edward William Godwin. She lived with Christabel Marshall (Christopher St. John) from 1899 until they were joined in 1916 by the artist Clare 'Tony' Atwood, living togehter until Craig's death in 1947. Virginia Woolf is said to have used Edith Craig as a model for Miss LaTrobe in Between the Acts.

Joe LeSueur & Frank O'Hara: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1502228.html

Frank O'Hara was an American writer, poet and art critic. He was a member of the New York School of poetry. He then attended graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. While at Michigan, he won a Hopwood Award and received his M.A. in English literature 1951. That autumn O'Hara moved into an apartment in New York City with Joe LeSueur, who would be his roommate and sometime lover for the next 11 years. It was in New York that he began teaching at The New School.

Frank O’Hara & Larry Rivers: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/2898381.html

Frank O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) also had a relationship with artist Larry Rivers in the late 1950s and Rivers delivered the eulogy at O'Hara's funeral in 1966. Larry Rivers (August 17, 1923 - August 14, 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker and occasional actor. Rivers resided and maintained studios in New York City, Southampton, New York (on Long Island) and Zihuatanejo, Mexico. Rivers is considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art.

Freda Stark & Thelma Mareo: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4263011.html

Freda Stark was a New Zealand dancer. In 1933, Stark joined Ernest Rolls' revue, and met a young dancer named Thelma Trott, and the two women fell in love. In 1934 Trott married Eric Mareo, their conductor. In 1935 Trott took a fatal overdose of a prescription drug, leading to Mareo being charged with her murder. During the Second World War, she was a famed exotic dancer at Auckland's Wintergarden cabaret and nightclub, a favourite of American troops and she earned the title "Fever of the Fleet"

Kenneth Macpherson, Jimmie Daniels, Algernon Islay de Courcy Lyons & Norman Douglas: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3664014.html

Bryher was the pen name of the novelist, poet, memoirist, and magazine editor Annie Winifred Ellerman. In 1927 she married Kenneth Macpherson, a writer who shared her interest in film and who was at the same time H.D.'s lover (H.D. was Bryher’s lover as well). In Burier, Switzerland, overlooking Lake Geneva, the couple built a Bauhaus-style style structure that doubled as a home and film studio, which they named Kenwin. They formally adopted H.D.'s young daughter, Perdita.

Richmond Barthe said he chose Jimmie Daniels as his subject because of his dazzling smile, but it was actually Kenneth Macpherson's wife, Winifred Ellerman aka Bryher, who commissioned the bust. Kenneth Macpherson was Jimmie Daniels' lover and his was a marriage of convenience. Bryher supported her husband, who in turn supported Jimmie, thus affording him a high-class life in a Greenwich Village apartment for several years.

George Norman Douglas was a British writer, now best known for his 1917 novel South Wind. Kenneth Macpherson bought a home on Capri, "Villa Tuoro", which he shared with his lover, the photographer, Algernon Islay de Courcy Lyons. Bryher, Macpherson’s wife, supported her husband and his friend on Capri, requesting that they take into their home the aging Douglas. Douglas had been friends of Bryher and Macpherson since 1931. Macpherson remained on Capri until Douglas's death in 1952.

Islay Lyons was a notable Welsh photographer, novelist and linguist. During the WWII, he served in North Africa and then he was sent to the Far East to learn Japanese in 3 months. He did this with amongst others, Richard Mason, who was a lifelong friend and cousin by marriage. Lyons is portrayed by the character 'Peter' in Mason's book 'The Wind Cannot Read'. Lyons had been the last lover of the film-maker, Kenneth Macpherson, both of them living in the ‘Villa Tuoro’ on Capri.

Perry Deane Young (born March 27, 1941): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3520507.html

Perry Deane Young is the author of Two of the Missing, about fellow journalists Sean Flynn (son of Errol Flynn) and Dana Stone, who went missing during the Vietnam War and whose fates remain unknown, and the co-author of The David Kopay Story, a biography of 1970's football player David Kopay, who revealed in 1975 that he is gay. He has lived in the basement of a non-profit counseling and support group in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, working around the building in lieu of rent, since 1993.

Timothy McGivney (born March 27, 1972): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4274331.html

Timothy McGivney resides in Palm Springs, California, is single, and currently dating (his TiVo). Zombielicious won a 2011 Rainbow Award as Best Gay Paranormal / Horror and Best Gay Debut: Amidst a zombie outbreak, Walt, athletic and confident, meets shy and quiet Joey, the attraction between them both instant and electric. With strength in numbers, they band together alongside fellow survivors. In this apocalyptic new world of the dead, an anything-goes attitude has become the law of the land.

Thom Bierdz is the artist who will "borrow" his work to be dispalyed in Sticke Figures (a project of Matthew Montgomery).

I asked Thom if he would like to share a bit of him and his work with us, and I found a very kind but maybe shy man. Strange if you think that he is also an actor, but maybe this makes him an even more interesting person, someone I'm glad to have the chance to discover.

1) Your website says: Thom Bierdz, Actor, Artist & Author. Do you feel to be more of one of those three souls?

I am a quiet guy - my personality is really suited to be alone and create - as a painter.

2) Do you want to tell us something more on your role as Philip Cancellor III in "The Young and the Restless"?

Last year I made history by being the first out-gay actor hired on daytime for a contract role! I received a poignant HRC award.

3) You defined "Forgiving Troy" a VERY personal book. It's enough to read the blurb to understand that for sure it's, but do you care to tell something more about it and the experience to write it?

On this 3 minute clip (taped last month) from CBS news I talk about my book:

http://www.cbsatlanta.com/video/21928920/index.html

 
Taking the Leap

4) Looking at your Gallery, you have a very different and various portfolio. What is your background as artist?

Self-taught trial and error

5) You said that in the last 5 year, art made your living: what is the main common output for your artworks?

I have being doing a lot of personal commissions - a lot of family and dog portraits.

6) Your artworks will be protagonist in the Matthew Montgomery's movie, Sticke Figures; I suppose they will be the "paintings" of the main character, that is an artist. How did you come to this project?

My ex, best guy in the world, is Matt's boyfriend now.

7) Is it your first time on the screen not as actor?

My art has been on several tv show sets.



“2005 Emerging Artist of the Year, Los Angeles” What emerges from his personal journey onto the canvas is at times heartbreaking, haunting and profoundly affecting. Thom’s body of work ultimately proves to be an uplifting and inspiring experience of transcendence, a compelling testimony on the resilience of the human spirit.

Contradictory strategies for painting has quickly become Bierdz’s hallmark. Although he uses the same touch throughout, it can at times appear to be a number of different voices, even personalities. The reluctance to lay claim to a fixed position might at one time have been attributed to youth but it is clearly now an integral aspect of Bierdz methodology. Nothing is by chance. Even when the form appears to be a sort of free association, that’s really his expertise in terms of handling paint. The process is at times extremely rigorous and other times purely subconscious.

His paintings prove cunningly hard to pin down. One painting might be purely decorative abstraction; another an architectural interior or a figurative work. A single landscape might contain the following; asymmetrical branches that engulf a whimsical cabin, naïve animals that refer to Henri Rousseau’s paintings, atmospheric washes that evoke Rothko’s use of vivid color and bold strokes of shapes that seem to pay homage to Matisse. Whether it is a yellow-green wash over a woman in a chair or the mystical atmosphere of a moonlit landscape or storybook houses, it is a lyrical arrangement of elements that flips between symbolism, impressionism and abstract patterning. Bierdz is masterful at establishing tension between the decorative mark and recognizable imagery.

In the end, the artist allows the work to speak for itself. The very thing that takes our breath away, his diversity, his range, this combination of charm and sometimes harsh reality, are the same avenues we all walk. He holds a sort of universal mirror, as if to dare us to look at ourselves, and with a bold conviction and honesty, embrace all of who we are.

http://www.thombierdz.com/



( more pics )

More Artists at my website: http://www.elisarolle.com/, My Ramblings/Art

Cristóbal Balenciaga (January 21, 1895 – March 23, 1972): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3515830.html

Cristóbal Balenciaga (January 21, 1895, Spain – March 23, 1972, Spain) was a Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house. In Paris, Balenciaga had a partner, Vladzio Zawrorowski d'Attainville, who designed hats, while Nicholas Biscarondo looked after the business side (as well as Balenciaga’s sexual needs). Balenciaga presented his first collection in August 1937, charging about 3,500 francs for a dress, and earning 193,200 francs in a month — a good start.

Edward Molyneux (September 5, 1891 - March 23, 1974): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3516133.html

Edward Molyneux (5 September 1891 – 23 March 1974) was a British fashion designer whose fashion house in Paris was in operation from 1919 until 1950. In 1923, though said to be openly homosexual, he married his first wife Muriel Dunsmuir (1890–1951), one of the eight daughters of the Hon. James Dunsmuir, Premier of British Columbia. They divorced in 1924. "The designer to whom a fashionable woman would turn if she wanted to be absolutely right without being utterly predictable" -Caroline Milbank

J.C. Leyendecker & Charles Beach: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/2661818.html

Joseph Christian "J.C." Leyendecker (March 23, 1874 – July 25, 1951) was one of the pre-eminent American illustrators of the early 20 century. Leyendecker lived for most of his life with Charles Beach, the Arrow Collar Man, on whom the stylish men in his artwork were modeled. Leyendecker left a tidy estate equally split between his sister and Beach. Leyendecker is buried alongside parents and brother Frank at Woodlawn Cemetery in Bronx, New York. Charles Beach's burial location is unknown.

Jonathan Ames (born March 23, 1964): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3515249.html

Jonathan Ames is an American author who has written a number of novels and comic memoirs. He was a columnist for the New York Press, and became known for self-deprecating tales of his sexual misadventures. In I Pass Like Night, Alexander Vine uses sex to stave off ennui. The circumstances are of no particular importance to him, nor are his partners: men when he's drunk; a female lover named Joy for whom he feels nothing; waterfront vagrants and street hookers when he can't get it any other way.

Julia Glass (born March 23, 1956): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1384474.html

Julia Glass is an American novelist. Her debut novel, Three Junes, won the National Book Award in 2002: Paul McLeod, a newspaper publisher and recent widower, travels to Greece, where he falls for a young American artist and reflects on the complicated truth about his marriage. . ..Six years later, again in June, Paul’s death draws his three grown sons and their families back to their ancestral home. Fenno, the eldest, a wry, introspective gay man, narrates the events of this unforeseen reunion.

Perez Hilton (born March 23, 1978): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4268275.html

Perez Hilton is an American blogger and television personality. His blog is known for posts covering gossip items about celebrities. He is also known for posting tabloid photographs over which he has added his own captions or "doodles". Hilton published a children's book entitled "The Boy With Pink Hair." Hilton described the book as a story "about every kid that's ever had a dream, felt excluded, wanted to belong, and hoped that one day they could do what they loved and make a difference."

Ronald Tavel (May 17, 1936 - March 23, 2009): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3515523.html

Ronald Tavel (May 17, 1936 – March 23, 2009) was an American screenwriter, director, novelist, poet and actor, best known for his work with Andy Warhol and The Factory. In 1980, he was appointed the First Playwright-in-Residence at Cornell University where he was commissioned to write the melodrama, The Understudy, which starred a young Jimmy Smitts. In 1986, Tavel was appointed Distinguished Visiting Assistant Professor in Creative Writing at The University of Colorado at Boulder.

Shaun McGill (1962 - March 23, 1992): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3516271.html

Shaun McGill was an ice dancer and choreographer. "He was very calm," recalled Regis Gagnon of skater Shaun McGill in 1989 after McGill was told he had AIDS. Gagnon, 32 at the time, a program adviser at the Ontario Ministry of Health, lived with McGill in Toronto for four years prior to McGill's death. "I kept informed about the latest AIDS treatments. Shaun said to me, 'Just tell me what I need to know. I'll take the pills I'm supposed to take. But don't bother me. I've got work to do.' "

Steven Saylor & Richard Solomon: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4268612.html

Steven Saylor is an American author of historical novels. Saylor's best-known work is his Roma Sub Rosa historical mystery series, set in ancient Rome. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, where he studied history and classics. Saylor has lived with Richard Solomon since 1976; they registered as domestic partners in San Francisco in 1991 and later dissolved that partnership in order to legally marry in October 2008. The couple split their time between properties in Berkeley and Austin.

Terry Sweeney & Lanier Laney: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4268463.html

Terry Sweeney is an American writer, comedian and actor. Terry Sweeney's partner is Lanier Laney, a comedy writer who also wrote for SNL in the 1985–1986 season. They first met as members of a sketch comedy troupe called the "Bess Truman Players". Laney and Sweeney were also writing partners for Saturday Night Live during the 1985–1986 season, the movie Shag, and the Sci-Fi Channel cartoon Tripping The Rift. As of 2012, the couple reside in Beaufort, South Carolina. They married on April 2012.

Anthony Creighton (1922 – March 22, 2005): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3513144.html

Anthony Creighton, actor and writer, is best known as the co-author of the play Epitaph for George Dillon with John Osborne. Although Creighton had little other dramatic success, he remained a close friend and confidant of Osborne, and was living with him on a houseboat in the Thames in 1954, the year Osborne wrote Look Back in Anger. Creighton is believed to have been the model for Cliff in the play. In 1960 Creighton co-wrote another play with his lover Bernard Miller, Tomorrow with Pictures.

Carol Anshaw & Jessie Ewing: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3514899.html

Carol Anshaw is an American novelist and short story writer. Her books include Lucky in the Corner, Seven Moves, Aquamarine, and Carry the One. When Anshaw was growing up, her family divided its time between Michigan and Ft Lauderdale, Florida. In 1968 she moved to Chicago, marrying Charles J. White III in 1969 (they were divorced in 1985). Since 1996, Anshaw has been in a relationship with photographer, filmaker and teacher Jessie Ewing. The two divide their time between Chicago and Amsterdam.

Dan Hartman (November 4, 1950 - March 22, 1994): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3513369.html

Dan Hartman (November 4, 1950, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania - March 22, 1994, Westport, Connecticut) was a Singer/Songwriter, Multi-Instrumentalist (Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Drums), Producer. In 1978 he shifted from rock to disco. His album Instant Replay was a hit, as was the title single, and led to a world-wide tour. The next album, Relight My Fire, featured a duet with Loleatta Holloway on the title track, and Hartman jamming with Edgar Winter and Stevie Wonder on the song "Hands Down."

Ian Stephens (? - March 22, 1996): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/2823487.html

Ian Stephens was a Canadian poet, journalist and musician, best known as one of the major Canadian voices in the spoken word movement of the 90s. Most of his work focused on his experiences living with AIDS. In 1992, Stephens released a spoken word CD, Wining Dining and Drilling, which featured his poetry with a punk rock-influenced musical backing. Stephens was also a writer for the Montreal Mirror, contributing book reviews and a 1994 cover story, "A Weary State of Grace", on living with AIDS.

Ilana Kloss & Billie Jean King: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3514109.html

Billie Jean King is a former professional tennis player. She won 12 Grand Slam Singles titles, 16 Grand Slam women's doubles titles, and 11 Grand Slam mixed doubles titles. King is an advocate for sexual equality and won The Battle of the Sexes tennis match against Bobby Riggs in 1973. She confessed in 2007 that she had concealed her sexuality for so many years because her parents were homophobic. She is now in a relationship with Ilana Kloss, former professional tennis player.

John B. Whyte (May 22, 1928 - March 22, 2004): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3514112.html

John B. Whyte was an American real estate entrepreneur and former magazine model who developed Fire Island Pines, New York. He was involved in the famous drag queen "Invasion" of the Pines from the Grovers: the people who were living in Cherry Grove, always in Fire Island: the incident that is said to have provoked Grovers beyond endurance was a public humiliation of the Grove's flashy and popular Italian-American drag queen, Teri Warren, by top male model and Pines Botel/disco owner Whyte.

Kenneth Siminski (1952 - March 22, 1993): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3514565.html

Kenneth E. Siminski was stage manager for numerous Off Broadway plays, including Tina Howe's "Approaching Zanzibar," with Jane Alexander, and "Coastal Disturbances," with Annette Bening. He appeared in the CBS television movie "A Royal Romance" and directed more than a dozen productions at Off Broadway theaters. He was a founder of the Theater of Youth Company in Buffalo and appeared regularly in regional stock theater in Cooperstown, N.Y. He was survived by his companion, Timothy Fortuna.

M.L. Rhodes (born March 22): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/999103.html

M.L. Rhodes has been writing for almost fifteen years, predominantly write gay male romance and erotic romance. In Falling, Christian Wetherly comes to the U. S. undercover, posing as a British cop, to investigate a series of murders he suspects have been committed by a dark mage. He never expects, however, to find himself intensely attracted to the American police detective, Alec Anderson, in charge of the case. Christian has struggled with his hidden desires and hasn't admitted them to anyone.

Mark Badgley and James Mischka: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3340197.html

Badgley Mischka is an American fashion label designed by Mark Badgley and James Mischka. Badgley and Mischka went to New York City's City Hall on March 22, 2013, to make their 28-year union official. The designers first met while students at the Parsons School of Design and launched their label in 1988 (followed by bridal, a category for which they would become internationally renowned, in 1993). They have since dressed everyone from Oprah to the Olsen twins in luxe evening wear.

Sean Kennedy (born March 22, 1975): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1089282.html

Sean Kennedy was born in 1975 in Melbourne, Australia, but currently lives in the second most isolated city in the world. Tigers and Devils, his first novel, was published by Dreamspinner Press: Football, friends, and film are the most important parts of Simon Murray's life. His best friends despair of him ever finding that special someone to share his life. They drag him to a party, where Simon barges into a football conversation and ends up defending the honour of star forward Declan Tyler.

Stephen Decatur & Richard Somers: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4267084.html

Stephen Decatur was one of America’s first naval heroes. As a commander, he endured the loss of his closest friend and companion, Richard Somers. Battling the Barbary Pirates in 1804, Somers volunteered to blow up the pirates’ coastal stronghold. Instead it was Somers and his crew that went up in smoke, while Decatur watched helplessly from the deck of his own vessel. Prior to the fatal mission, Somers had given Decatur a gold ring, which the aggrieved seaman wore for the rest of his life.

Stephen Sondheim & Peter Jones: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3513700.html

Stephen Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist. Sondheim has been described as being introverted, a solitary figure. He has stated that he doesn't believe in marriage. He came out in the 1980s and did not live with a partner until he was 61, in 1991, with Peter Jones, a dramatist; they lived together for several years, until 1999. In an interview with Frank Rich, Sondheim said that "the outsider feeling – somebody who people want to both kiss and kill – occurred quite early in my life."

Agustín Gómez Arcos (January 15, 1933 - March 20, 1998): http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/1122434.html

Agustín Gómez Arcos (Enix, Almería, Spain, January 15, 1933 - Paris, March 20, 1998) was a Spanish writer. "The Carnivorous Lamb — and immediately appealed to my hyper-Christian sensibilities associated with the word "lamb," not to mention the lamb imagery replete in Lorca‘s aforementioned play. First impressions are always lasting ones, and my first encounter with Gomez-Arcos was shrouded mythic possibilities which my mind has continued to romanticize ever since." --Richard Reitsma

Gary Glickman & David Leavitt: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3510844.html

David Leavitt is an American novelist. Leavitt's partner since the late '70 (and until before 1992) was Gary Glickman, the author of Years From Now and Aura. After graduation Leavitt moved to NY where he lived at first with fellow students and later with Glickman. From NY he later moved with his partner in East Hampton, a favorite place of many writers, and he went in New York a few times on business travel, maintaining the Glickman's small apartment. Around 2000, Glickman moved to Santa Monica.

Sir Isaac Newton & Nicolas Fatio de Duillier: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4264267.html

Sir Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician. Newton had been reluctant to publish his calculus because he feared controversy and criticism. He was close to the Swiss mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier, whom he met in London around 1690. In 1691, Duillier started to write a new version of Newton's Principia. In 1693 the relationship between Duillier and Newton deteriorated, and at the same time Newton suffered a nervous breakdown, and the book was never completed.

Jeff Miner & David Zier, John Tyler Connoley & Rob Connoley: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/4264517.html

Jeff Miner is the pastor of Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis. He was raised in fundamentalist independent Baptist churches, and received his undergraduate degree from Bob Jones University. He discovered the Metropolitan Community Churches, a Christian denomination that has arisen out of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. He completed his clergy training and was ordained in 1997. Jeff lives with his spouse David Zier. They were married on September 8, 1990.

John Tyler Connoley is the son of Wesleyan missionaries. He came out to himself in 1991, while attending Indiana Wesleyan University. He is married to Rob Connoley. "The night my spouse and I first met, another couple in the room made bets on how long it would be before we were married. For me, it was one of those love-at-first-sight moments. He walked up to me at a Metropolitan Community Church event, smiled, and said, "Hi, my name's Rob," and I fell head over heels." --John Tyler Connoley

Ruby Rose, Catherine McNeil & Phoebe Dahl: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3510220.html

Catherine McNeil (born March 20, 1989) is an Australian fashion model. At fourteen years old, she won a model search contest hosted by Girlfriend. In 2009 she was photographed kissing Ruby Rose (born March 20, 1986), an Australian MTV VJ, during a pool party in Los Angeles. The pair were believed to be engaged, however reports have stated the engagement was called off on 2 July 2010. At the peak of her career she was ranked 12th on the Top 50 Models Women list by models.com.

Ruby Rose Langenheim (born 20 March 1986), better known as Ruby Rose, is an Australian model, television presenter, MTV VJ and recording artist. On the 18 March 2014 Rose reported that she was formally engaged to Phoebe Dahl, granddaughter of author Roald Dahl and cousin of model Sophie Dahl. Rose came out as a lesbian when she was 12. In 2008 and 2009, she was chosen as one of the "25 Most Influential Gay and Lesbian Australians" by Same Same, an Australian online gay and lesbian community.

Stephen Petronio & Jean-Marc Flack: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3511069.html

Jean-Marc works in the fashion industry, and he finds that he is constantly surrounded by superficiality. In 1995, after doing some research to find a fulfilling volunteer opportunity, he was attracted to the "hands-on" concept of God's Love We Deliver. Although they did not meet at God's Love We Deliver, Jean-Marc brought Stephen Petronio to the kitchen on one of their first dates in 1997. After peeling way too many pounds of potatoes, Jean-Marc knew he was in love (not with the potatoes!).