I have not felt like much like writing this week. So I’m glad many of ya’ll liked the column, and were kind enough to send me notes saying so. Those are always nice emails to get.

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A friend of mine who is in grad school is doing a paper about issues for older female-to-male transexual/transgender people. She is “…looking for input from 57+ yr old FTMs on the issues they face specific to the tranny experience as relates to aging, especially psychosocially.”

If you’re an older FTM who’d be willing to answer some questions for her, drop me a note and I’ll forward it to her. This is a queer woman who has had long-term FTM partners, so she’s hip to all the basic issues. You won’t have to answer any uninformed questions or teach her FTM 101. It would be a big help to her.

***

I feel I should warn you all… I am going to a birthday party for a pal Saturday night. It’s a karaoke party. Yes, really – they rented a private room. And I might, just might, actually contemplate singing. If I have enough champagne. (Yes, it’s being a fairly champagne-heavy week around here. I feel I deserve it.)

But you see, I absolutely do not sing unless I have champagne. And ideally, everyone who hears me should have a lot of champagne too, because I sing really badly. I know everyone says that, but I’m serious – when I sing, dogs howl.

Still, if my listeners are rendered sufficiently uncritical by alcohol, I can sort of fake my way through novelty-type songs. As long they don’t require any sustained notes. Meanwhile, Monk is trying to convince me I should sing something by Journey. Oh yeah, because tone-deaf moi could so hit those notes. Right. I’m thinking Lou Reed’s “Take A Walk On The Wild Side” because Lou is basically talking to music in that number.

But if your dog starts howling for no apparent reason Saturday night – whoops, sorry about that. Just wait about three minutes, it’ll stop. And maybe you should have some champagne.

Perhaps They Have The Right Idea

I've come to the conclusion that some people really know what would be best for them, and for society as a whole. Like this gentleman, who writes:

I read your peace on castration.. how does one get it done with you??/ thanks for you information.. clancy

I think I could be completely at peace with Clancy here being castrated. That way he wouldn't breed.

But it sounds messy. Perhaps Clancy should speak to someone who raises livestock...

Wow, this was a busy weekend.

Not half as busy for me as for some people, but busy enough! Miss K and I did attend the women's party Friday night, and lord, was that place packed. A very successful event, I'm pleased it did so well.

Saturday was the SEAF gala and while I opted out, I'm told that was also fabulous.

The other super-cool people in town for the festivities were New York photographer Michele Serchuk and her partner Delano. How to describe Delano in a sentence? Let's see, he's a man who both ties and is tied, he shoots photographs and he is photographed, and he's hot. He also has a sense of humor and a style of patter that is not unlike Monk's. So when Monk told me they they were going to utilize the playroom at The Big House to shoot some rope-video on Sunday afternoon, I make plans to stay home and watch. Especially when Monk said he would volunteer his wrists as a rope-model. Hot boy-on-boy action! Okay, not really, but still.

So check Monk's blog for the official video, although I suspect the out-takes will be the best part, they had me and the crew cracking up laughing half the time. Here's one still I snapped.

Now, there's another, but in this one, even though Delano is a expert rigger, he seems to have gotten a little confused about the proper pathway for the rope. Huh, how'd that happen? Surely an innocent slip of the hemp. Surely. (Yeah, right. Watch for the video.)