Quote of the Day

No figure from the past 50 years of music encapsulates the allure of the reclusive genius more than Kate Bush, turning 60 today without a jot of her otherworldly mystique evaporating with age.

[Since the beginning of her career in 1978] Bush has set the blueprint for the autonomous artist creating masterworks entirely at their own pace and on their own terms. Kate Bush is the definitive example of a musician allowing work to flow through her life, not cram life into the spaces between her work.

. . . [Her debut single] ‘Wuthering Heights’ made her the first woman to reach Number One in the UK singles chart with a self-written song. [It] also placed Bush at the vanguard of a trickle of artistically emancipated, self-determining female solo artists that would grow to a flood with the arrivals of Madonna, Sinead O’Connor, PJ Harvey, Bjork and countless more. Bush’s brilliance was in never selling out that noble position, always maintaining the highest artistic standards and never giving in to the cash-register lure of lowest common denominator pop.

. . . It’s the way that Kate Bush is simultaneously carefree and in complete control of her life and legacy that makes her such an icon, an enigma worthy of the name.

– Mark Beaumont
Excerpted from "Celebrating Kate Bush at 60"
NME
July 30, 2018

I found a book on how to be invisible
Take a pinch of keyhole
And fold yourself up
You cut along a dotted line
You think inside out
And you're invisible

Eye of Braille
Hem of anorak
Stem of wallflower
Hair of doormat

I found a book on how to be invisible
On the edge of the labyrinth
Under a veil you must never lift
Pages that you must never turn
In the labyrinth

You stand in front of a million doors
And each one holds a million more
Corridors that lead to the world
Of the invisible
Corridors that twist and turn
Corridors that blister and burn

Eye of Braille
Hem of anorak
Stem of wallflower
Hair of doormat

Is that the wind from the desert song?
Is that an autumn leaf falling?
Or is that you walking home?
Is that the wind from the desert song?
Is that an autumn leaf falling?
Or is that you walking home?
Is that a storm in the swimming pool?

You take a pinch of keyhole
And fold yourself up
You cut along a dotted line
You think inside out
You jump round three times
You jump into the mirror
And you're invisible

– Kate Bush
"How to Be Invisible"
(from the 2005 album, Aerial)

Related Off-site Links:
Kate Bush at 60: An Exquisite Pop Genius Whose Influence Endures – Annie Zaleski (Salon, July 27, 2018).
Emily Bronte at 200: How Kate Bush Brought the Author's Gothic Romance Wuthering Heights to Life – Joe Sommerlad (Independent, July 30, 2018).


For more of Kate Bush at The Wild Reed, see:
• Celebrating the Unique and Influential Kate Bush

• "A Dark Timelessness and Stillness Surrounds Her Wild Abandonment"
• "Can You See the Lark Ascending?"
• Quote of the Day – August 17, 2014
• Wow!
• Scaling the Heights
• "Oh, Yeah!"
• Celebrating Bloomsday in St. Paul (and with Kate Bush)
• "Rosabelle, Believe . . ."
• Just in Time for Winter
• "Call Upon Those You Love"
• A Song of Summer
• "There's Light in Love, You See"

Image 1: A 2011 portrait of Kate by her brother John Carder Bush.
Image 2: Illustration by Mark Wagstaff (Mojo, October 2014).
Image 3: Kate with dancer and choreographer Stewart Avon-Arnold in 1993. (Photographer unknown)

Something to Think About . . .

– Nath Paresh

Related Off-site Links:
U.N. General Assembly Condemns Israel’s Massacre of Gaza Protesters – Democracy Now! (June 14, 2018).
After Warning of "Large and Painful Military Operation," Israel Begins Massive Bombing of Gaza – Jake Johnson (Common Dreams, July 20, 2018).
Israel Launches Major Assault Against Gaza – Maureen Clare Murphy (The Electronic Intifada, July 20, 2018).
The World Is Silent as Isarel Bombs Palestine – Friends of Syria (July 15, 2018).
EU Calls on Israel to Stop Using "Excessive Force" Against Civilians – Middle East Monitor (July 26, 2018).
Israeli “Self-defense” Against Palestinians Is Logically Impossible – Greg Shupak (The Electronic Intifada, July 26, 2018).
Death Toll in Gaza Rises to 61, After Israeli Military Massacres Protesters – Democracy Now! (May 15, 2018).
U.S. Refuses to Criticize Israel’s Massacre of 60+ Palestinians During Nonviolent Protest – Democracy Now! (May 16, 2018).
Israel Challenges the World: I Am an Apartheid State, What Are You Going to Do About It? – Middle East Monitor (July 23, 2018).
Israel Wants to Break Gaza Once and For All – Maureen Clare Murphy (The Electronic Intifada, July 11, 2018).

Above: Israeli forces violently attacking Palestinians as they evict them from their homes in Khan Al-Ahmar village of Jerusalem on July 4, 2018. (Photo: Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency)

Above: A fireball exploding in Gaza City during Israeli bombardment on July 20, 2018. Israeli aircraft and tanks hit targets throughout the Gaza Strip. Gaza's health ministry is reporting that three Palestinians have been killed. (Photo: Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images)

Above: The body of a Palestinian child who died of tear gas inhalation during protests, according to Gaza's health ministry, is carried through the streets of Gaza City, May 15, 2018, (Photographer unknown)

Above: A wounded Palestinian protestor is evacuated near the border fence with occupied lands, in Rafah in southern Gaza Strip on April 20, 2018. (Photo: AFP)

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• For Some Jews, Israel's Treatment of Palestinians is Yet Another Jewish Tragedy
• Israeli Policy, Not Anti-Semitism, at the Root of Disruption at Creating Change 2016 Conference
• Remembering the Six-Day War and Its Ongoing Aftermath
• Quote of the Day – August 12, 2014
• Something to Think About – July 18, 2014
• "We Will Come Together in Our Pain"
• Thoughts on Prayer in a "Summer of Strife"

Thomas Moore on the Circling of Nature as the Best Way to Find Our Substance

Reports the BBC:

Skywatchers around the world have witnessed the longest "blood moon" eclipse of the 21st Century. As it rose, during this total eclipse, Earth's natural satellite turned a striking shade of red or ruddy brown. The "totality" period, where light from the Moon was totally obscured, lasted for one hour and forty-three minutes. At least part of the eclipse was visible from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, most of Asia and South America.

To celebrate last night's beautiful phenomenon of creation's circling and cyclical nature, I share an excerpt from Original Self: Living With Paradox and Originality by one of my favorite spiritual writers, Thomas Moore. I've long wanted to share this particular excerpt at The Wild Reed, and now seems a perfect time, or, as Moore might say, the appropriate season!

Humans often have a preference for straight lines. We think of evolution and human development as following an uncrooked path toward perfection. We expect our neighbors to walk the straight and narrow. We don't approve of deviancy (de via), which is nothing more than veering off the straight line. Furthermore, we understand that the best straight line of evolution and development moves forward. We don't think much of regression.

It's interesting, then, that alchemists of old, who saw their work with metals and chemicals as a reflection of the soul's processes, described the task as one of cycling and circling. The opus, the work of alchemy, was called rotatio or circulatio. The vessel in which the work took place, shaped like a bird with its neck bent over plucking its breast, was sometimes described as a pelican, This shape allowed the material to circulate endlessly.

I see my own life as a recycled version of my family's quirks, strengths, and weaknesses. I look at my hands sometimes and see my father's. I feel a strong reserve in my approach to people, and I sense my mother's sensitivity. I feel my grandfather's humor in me and my uncle's unlimited tolerance. I do the family blush about sex, and I have its homebound view of the world.

In therapy, several men and women who had been married more than once or had had many lovers told me of their resolution to finally straighten out and move on. They were tired of the cycles in which they repeated destructive choices. But I didn't have much faith in their resolutions. It might have been better, I thought, if they reflected positively on the repetitions that fueled their desires rather than hoped for a release from the bondage of their nature.

One sometimes sentimental way of redeeming the soul's circlings is to insist that they are, after all, spirals. We are getting someplace even if we're going in circles. But I don't trust this clever spin on circles either. A circle is a circle, and there is no reason to believe that human life is correct only when it straightens out. Maybe at root we are coils of possibility in constant rotation.

Rainer Maria Rilke said, "I live my life in widening rings." It may well be useful to note the expanding of the circles in which we live, but it is also important not to lose the sensation of cycles, which may be painful to anyone living in a culture dedicated to the extending line. Maybe in life we never really develop, but only expand the rotations that give us our firm identity. Maybe we should expect always to get into familiar trouble and to repeat both the glorious and the defeating themes that are embedded in our soul.

Traditional peoples apparently honor the cycles of nature, communities, and persons with as much fervor as we honor developments and growth. I sense escape in theories of expansion, because it may be that the soul finds its way by not going anywhere. The circling of nature, inner and outer, may be the best way to find our substance.

We might know ourselves better and be closer to our nature by honoring these cycles rather by running away from them in sentimental philosophies of growth. I don't grow, I am. I don't change, I merely manifest differently the prime material with which I am born. Perhaps if we got off the demanding belt of change and growth, we might relax into the circumambulations of life that turn us over and over, polishing the arcane stone of our most essential selves, revealing more and more of who and what we are.

Modern psychology tries to tell us that we are constantly developing creatures, but I prefer to think of us as seasonal beings. We have our summers of sunny pleasure and our winters of discontent, our springtimes of renewal and our autumns of necessary decay. We are essentially rhythmic, musical. As the ancients used to say, our emotions are in orbit, like the planets. Patterns that define us return again and again, and in these returns we find our substance and our continuity, our original nature and our identity.

– Thomas Moore
Excerpted from Original Self:
Living With Paradox and Originality
pp. 62-64

For more of Thomas Moore's writings at The Wild Reed, see:
• Thomas Moore on the "Ageless Soul"
• At Hallowtide, Pagan Thoughts on Restoring Our World and Our Souls
• Christmas 2014: Thoughts and Celebrations

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Celebrating the Coming of the Sun and the Son
• "Radical Returnings" – Mayday 2016
• Drawing the Circle Wide
• Beltane and the Reclaiming of Spirit
• "I Caught a Glimpse of a God"
• A Prayer for Dancers
• A Day to Celebrate the Old Ways
• Welcoming the Return of Spring
• Celebrating the Summer Solstice
• Autumn: Within and Beyond
• Winter: Within and Beyond

Image 1: Artist unknown.
Image 2: Anthony Duff.
Image 3: Book cover design by David Bullen; artwork by Joan Hanley.
Image 4: Alexandre Riabko in John Neumeier's 2000 ballet, Nijinsky; photo by Holger Badekow.
Image 5: Michael Jackson, Jr and Sean Carmon of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre; photo by NYC Dance Project.
Image 6: Foztography.

Interiors

Images: Michael J. Bayly.

Carl Anderson: "One of the Most Enjoyable Male Vocalists of His Era"

For "music night" this evening at The Wild Reed I share the song "Can't Stop This Feeling" by Carl Anderson, whose recordings from the 1980s and '90s I've been collecting and enjoying for the past three months or so.

Born February 27, 1945, Carlton Earl "Carl" Anderson was an American singer, film and theatre actor best known for his portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Broadway and film versions of the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. Yet for almost two decades, Carl was an accomplished and well-respected song stylist, artfully blending jazz, soul, pop, and R&B influences into his own unique and unforgettable style.

For reasons that are frustratingly elusive, many of Carl's best recordings remain unknown to the general public. His most popular song is his duet with singer-actress Gloria Loring, "Friends and Lovers," which reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986. Carl died on February 23, 2004, after an 8-month struggle with leukemia. He was less than a week away from his 59th birthday.

As I said at the beginning of this post, I share this evening the music video for what is perhaps Carl's second most well-known song, "Can't Stop This Feeling." This video is followed by a review by Chris Rizik of the 2010 reissue of Carl's 1985 album, Protocol. "Can't Stop This Feeling" was the opening track of this stellar album, generally regarded as one of Carl's best. Enjoy!

Carl Anderson – Protocol (Reissue)
A Review by Chris Rizik
SoulTracks.com (2010)

During the 1980s, Carl Anderson's immense talent was only matched by the wild inconsistency of the music he released. His debut album, Absence Without Love, was a major disappointment for fans who had waited nearly a decade after his seminal performance as Judas in the blockbuster movie Jesus Christ Superstar. And the follow up album, On and On, was only slightly better. Though he had teamed with first rate talent in making those albums, neither remotely did justice to his vocal stylings. But all the elements aligned in 1985 with Protocol, by far his best album of the decade and one of the most consistently enjoyable albums by a male soul vocalist that year. Teaming with producers Patrick Henderson, Al McKay (of Earth, Wind & Fire) and Gary Taylor, he fashioned an album that made good on the promise that was hinted at in his Superstar performance but was suppressed in his earlier solo work.

McKay brought the opening cut, "Can't Stop This Feeling," to the project and immediately created the greatest four minutes Anderson had ever recorded. The upbeat number was uber-infectious and Anderson tore it up with a a wonderful vocal performance. It was an auspicious opening to the album, but it was by no means the only high point. Unlike Anderson's earlier discs, Protocol included ballads that appeared tailor made for his expressive crooning. "Still Thinking of You" and "One More Time With Feeling" were top notch, and "Saving My Love For You" was a chillingly simple and beautiful coda to the disc. Some of the mid-80s Kashif-like production on "Let's Talk" and "Girl, I Won't Say No" sound a bit over the top now, but are more than offset by the subtler work on the dance number "What Will Happen Now" and the very nice "Love On Ice."

Clearly the material on Protocol was better than Anderson had had before, but there was also an obvious change in his approach to the disc – an increased comfort in driving the music where he wanted vocally – and it resulted in a great ride for listeners. Unfortunately, the album never received the promotion or attention it deserved, as for most popular music fans the introduction to Carl Anderson occurred a year later on the inferior "Friends and Lovers" duet with Gloria Loring and the accompanying slapped-together album. But Protocol did set the stage for the future direction Anderson would take with his career and several strong subsequent recordings over the next decade on MCA and GRP Records [the albums An Act of Love (1988), Pieces of a Heart (1990), Fantasy Hotel (1992), Heavy Weather / Sunlight Again (1994) and Why We Are Here (1997)].

Kudos to the gang at FunkyTownGrooves for reissuing this hidden gem of an album (with bonus cuts to boot [including the awesome "Light Me"). Protocol sounds as good [today] as it did a quarter century ago. It was a welcome addition to the soul world back then but, more than anything, Protocol answered the question that so many had been asking after Carl Anderson's first two album misfires: it showed that Carl Anderson really was a unique talent who could move beyond his Jesus Christ Superstar coming out party to become one of the most enjoyable male vocalists of his era.

– Chris Rizik

For more of Carl Anderson at The Wild Reed, see:
• Carl Anderson
• Revisiting a Groovy Jesus (and a Dysfunctional Theology)

Related Off-site Links:
Carl Anderson – Jazz Legend: The Official Website
Carl Anderson Memorial Page
Carl Anderson at AllMusic.com – Ron Wynn (AllMusic.com).
Carl Anderson Biography – Chris Rizik (Soul Tracks).
Carl Anderson, Superstar's Judas on Stage and Screen, Dead at 58 – Kenneth Jones (Playbill, February 24, 2004).
Obituary: Carl Anderson, 58; Actor Played Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar – Elaine Woo (Los Angeles Times, February 25, 2004).
Obituary: Carl Anderson, 58, Judas in Rock Opera – Reuters via The New York Times (February 27, 2004).
Carl Anderson Brought Judas to Life – Hank Stuever (Washington Post via Los Angeles Times, March 2, 2004).

Previously featured artists at The Wild Reed:
Dusty Springfield | David Bowie | Kate Bush | Maxwell | Buffy Sainte-Marie | Prince | Frank Ocean | Maria Callas | Loreena McKennitt | Rosanne Cash | Petula Clark | Wendy Matthews | Darren Hayes | Jenny Morris | Gil Scott-Heron | Shirley Bassey | Rufus Wainwright | Kiki Dee | Suede | Marianne Faithfull | Dionne Warwick | Sam Sparro | Wanda Jackson | Engelbert Humperdinck | Pink Floyd | Carl Anderson | The Church | Enrique Iglesias | Yvonne Elliman | Lenny Kravitz | Helen Reddy | Stephen Gately | Judith Durham | Nat King Cole | Emmylou Harris | Bobbie Gentry | Russell Elliot | BØRNS | Hozier | Enigma | Moby (featuring the Banks Brothers) | Cat Stevens | Chrissy Amphlett | Jon Stevens | Nada Surf | Tom Goss (featuring Matt Alber) | Autoheart | Scissor Sisters | Mavis Staples | Claude Chalhoub | Cass Elliot | Duffy | The Cruel Sea | Wall of Voodoo | Loretta Lynn and Jack White | Foo Fighters | 1927 | Kate Ceberano | Tee Set | Joan Baez | Wet, Wet, Wet | Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy | Fleetwood Mac | Jane Clifton | Australian Crawl | Pet Shop Boys | Marty Rhone | Josef Salvat | Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri | Aquilo | The Breeders | Tony Enos | Tupac Shakur | Nakhane Touré | Al Green | Donald Glover/Childish Gambino | Josh Garrels | Stromae

Photo of the Day

Image: "Red Rock in Minnehaha Creek" by Michael J. Bayly.

Quote of the Day

We know the United States has interfered in elections everywhere, including supposed allies and friends. . . . [It has] done it over and over again, and [there are] lots of examples. . . . Maybe the Russians did these things to the American elections. Maybe they wanted a Trump victory as an outcome. Maybe they wanted to weaken [a potential] Clinton presidency, as people are accusing them of. Maybe it’s all true. But the truth of it is this is normal stuff in the competition between these big countries. And the reason it’s made such an issue now is because various forces want to wound Trump. And he may or may not be complicit in this. So far there doesn’t seem to be any real evidence that he is. But it’s about the wounding of Trump and the struggle that’s taking place in the American elites, and within, very importantly, the state apparatus itself. [It's] a real struggle. And I have to say, I welcome this struggle. Because I think we have to talk about from what perspective do we look at these things.

[The oligarchy of this country] want us to look at these things as Americans, [as if] we’re all the same. You know, it’s an attack on American values. It’s an attack on American democracy. Well, is American values what goes on in the streets of Baltimore every day, where the Department of Justice said that people’s Constitutional rights are violated every single day? Are American values [the] unlimited spending of money, manipulating – the real manipulation – and determining outcome of elections? These aren’t the values of the American people. So let’s really be clear: the oligarchy of Russia is an adversary of the Russian people and the American oligarchy is an adversary of the American people. Let’s start with that. We’re not all in the same boat here. So, this issue of the people all up in arms about this [Trump-Putin] summit, it’s from the perspective of various sections of the American oligarchy. This is not what the American people need or want.

. . . [W]hat really affected the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election? So let’s say [the Russian government] did what they did. But what’s the bigger story? That the Russians did that? Or, for example, that this billionaire Robert Mercer, who brings money, Bannon and Kellyanne Conway and Breitbart News, which he mostly owned, to Trump, and manipulate through Cambridge Analytica, do various kinds of studying of voter patterns, especially in swing states, and are able to message specific messages to individual people. I still talk to people, intelligent, well-informed people, who never even heard the name Robert Mercer. It’s a far more important story to how the outcome of the election was manipulated by a far-right cabal very closely aligned with Netanyahu and Israel, allied with the Saudis. That’s a really big story.

It’s not that the Russians aren’t a story; but you know, where’s the big weight of the issues? And more importantly, given how destructive this Trump presidency is to the social safety net, to any kind of rational legislation that still exists in this country – and there wasn’t a heck of a lot of it, but they’re undoing what there was – given the fact that he’s a climate denier, I mean, what’s the bigger story? The fact that Trump’s undoing even the modest climate change legislation that existed? You know, pulling back EPA regulations on cars, allowing coal starting to drill everywhere any of these guys wants to drill, isn’t that a much bigger story than maybe, or even if, the Russians did whatever they did?

The point is that this Russia thing isn’t being driven by a real defense of values. Because the values of saving the planet, that’s a value. They’re not even talking about it. . . . [Y]es, if the Russians did it, American government agencies have every right to tell the Russians to stay the hell out of American elections. And if somebody colluded with them, yeah, sure, arrest them. I mean, whatever. That’s fine. But it’s peanuts compared to the bigger issues.

– Paul Jay
Excerpted from "Trump-Putin and the Real Threats to Democracy"
The Real News
July 16, 2018

Related Off-site Links:
The United States Has a National-Security Problem – and It’s Not What You Think – Rajan Menon (The Nation, July 16, 2018).
Climb Down From the Summit of Hostile Propaganda – Norman Solomon (Common Dreams, July 16, 2018).
Soft Targets: The Muddled and Anti-Intellectual American Brains That Made Election Meddling Possible – Bill C. Davis (Common Dreams, July 18, 2018).

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• Quote of the Day – July 16, 2017
• Hope in the Midst of Collapse
• The People's Climate Solidarity March – Minneapolis, 4/29/17

Out and About – Spring 2018 (Part II)

Friends, here is the second part of the spring installment of my Out and About 2018 series! (For Part I, click here.)

Spring 2018 got off to a cold and snowy start here in Minnesota. We experienced, for instance, the coldest April 6 in the Twin Cities in 145 years! Then on April 14 we experienced the Spring Blizzard of 2018.

That's my friend Joey at right, cleaning off his car of ice and snow before going to work – April 14, 2018.

Above: The spring thaw begins! – April 22, 2018.

Above: My friend Deandre, just chillin' with a cat.

On the evening of Monday, April 30, my dear friends Ken and Carol hosted a lovely dinner for myself and a number of our mutual friends.

Above (from left): Kathleen, Brigid, Carol, Ken, and Sue Ann.


Right: With my friend Kathleen – April 30, 2018.

Above: Carol and Ken.




Left: Brigid and Sue Ann – April 30, 2018.

Above: The 44th annual In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre's MayDay parade in Minneapolis – Sunday, May 6, 2018. This year's theme was "What You Feed, Grows! (It's All About Love)."

Right: With my friend Mahad at the MayDay parade.

For more images and commentary on MayDay 2018, click here and here.

Above: Standing with the Prayer Tree – Friday, May 4, 2018. My friend Raul snapped this pic. (And like in the previous picture with my friend Mahad, I'm wearing my Black Panther t-shirt!).

For more images from this beautiful spring day by Minnehaha Creek, click here.

Above: On Mother's Day (Sunday, May 13), my boyfriend Brent (right) hosted a lovely lunch for his mum and other members of his family.

Above: Little Amelia welcomes the return of spring!

Above: Amelia, the dragon girl.

Above: Mother's Day dinner at the home of my friends Noelle and John.

Above: With Brent – May 13, 2018. Note to self: Check your hair before posing with Brent, as his hair is always so immaculate!



Right: With friends Alicia and Scott – May 13, 2018.

Above: Friends Ben, Phil, and Dee – Sunday, May 13, 2018.

On May 14 I was invited to provide the opening blessing at the annual TRUST Meals on Wheels Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon. I'm pictured above at this event with friends Gretchen and Bob.

From June 2011 until June 2017 I served as a site coordinator with TRUST Meals on Wheels. For images and commentary from the farewell reception that my colleagues at TRUST hosted for me last June, click here.

Above: Deandre and Brent doing a spot of spring gardening – Saturday, May 26, 2018.

Above: Deandre, hard at it!

Above: A great portrait shot of my good friend Brian – Saturday, June 2, 2018.



Left: With Brian at Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis. We were there for the Minnesota Orchestra's June 2 "Bernstein and Walton" concert.

Above and right: My friends Hugh and David hosted the third Queer Movie Night on Sunday, June 3, 2018. They chose the 2017 drama God's Own Country to view and discuss.

Directed by Francis Lee, God's Own Country stars Josh O'Connor and Alec Secareanu. The plot follows a young sheep farmer in Yorkshire whose life is transformed by the arrival of a Romanian migrant worker. Since its release, God's Own Country has received critical acclaim. It holds a 99% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus reads: "A quiet, moving rumination on loneliness and newfound intimacy, God's Own Country marks an outstanding directorial debut for Francis Lee." Ed Potton, writing in The Times (of London), gave the film four stars out of five and described it as "splendid" and "a potent film, a Yorkshire Brokeback Mountain."

For more about our Queer Movie Night series, click here and here.

Above: David and Hugh – June 3, 2018.

Above: The view of downtown Minneapolis from David and Hugh's apartment.

Above: Omar, Brent, and Kathleen – June 3, 2018.

Above: Brent and I with friends Omar, Pete, and Jeffrey – June 3, 2018.

My friend Mahad, pictured above at the shop of Dave the Pie Guy, Tuesday, June 5, 2018, and, right, at Merlins Rest Pub, Sunday, June 10, 2018.

Mahad would have to have one of the best smiles around, wouldn't you say?

Above and left: On the afternoon of Sunday, June 10, Mahad and I spent time in an area of urban wilderness close to the Winchell Trail, a largely unpaved trail that winds about 2.5 miles along the west bank of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, from Franklin Avenue to Minnehaha Park. It follows what was once an Indian trail, and is mostly hidden.

For more images and commentary about our time at this beautiful spot in south Minneapolis, click here.

Above: Mahad – June 10, 2018.

On the evening of Friday, June 15, 2018 my friends Joan and Matt hosted a lovely dinner party in the famous kitchen of their Mendota Heights home!

Above (from left): Brent, Kurt, Matt, Joan, George, John, and Cesar.

Right: With Cesar and Brent.

Above: A lovely shot of Kurt and Cesar -- June 15, 2018.

Above: On Sunday, June 17, 2018, I joined with several hundred other people in a protest organized by the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee. This protest was against the Trump administration’s border crossing policy, which had forcibly separated more than 2,000 immigrant children from their parents.

Left: With my friend Sue Ann. (I'm wearing my Buffy Sainte-Marie t-shirt.)


For more images and commentary on this event, click here.

NEXT: Out and About – Summer 2018

Spring 2018 Wild Reed posts of note:
• Thoughts on Queer Cinema
• The God from the House of Bread: A Bridge Between Christianity and Paganism
• Congratulations, Buffy
• The Student-Activists of 2018 – Leading Us to the Future
• Easter Bodiliness
• Spring's Snowy Start
• Celebrating Al Green, Soul Legend
• The Spring Blizzard of 2018
• Happy Birthday, Dad!
• What a Difference Four Days Can Make
• Let's Dance
• Welcoming the Return of Spring
• Beltane: Casting Off the Darkness and Celebrating the Light
• Umberto and Roberto: Love in Motion
• In the Garden of Spirituality – David Richo
• Quote of the Day – May 8, 2018
• Deconstructing Childish Gambino's "This Is America"
• "What You Feed, Grows! (It's All About Love)" – MayDay 2018 (Part 1)
• "What You Feed, Grows! (It's All About Love)" – MayDay 2018 (Part 2)
• A Longing and a Prayer
• Quote of the Day – May 15, 2018
• Reclaiming the Power of Male Touch
• Spring Blooms
• The NFL: "A Modern Example of Nakedly Racist Authoritarianism in America"
• Something to Think About – May 27, 2018
• Yeah, You Know You've Got It
• Interiors
• Meeting (and Embodying) the Lover God
• The Gorgeous One
• Jeremy Scahill on the Historical Context of the Trump Administration's "Pathologically Sick" Anti-Immigrant Agenda
• Time By the River
• Michelangelo Signorile on the Rebellious Purpose of Queer Pride
• Opposing the Trump Administration's Inhumane Treatment of Immigrant Families

See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Out and About – Spring 2018 (Part I)
• Out and About – Winter 2017-2018
• Out and About – Autumn 2017
• Out and About – Summer 2017
• Out and About – Spring 2017

Images: Michael J. Bayly. (With thanks to my friend Mahad Abdullahi for the opening image.)