What's Up for Friday and the Weekend?

By the time I returned home from work yesterday, I was completely exhausted from a week of burning the candle at both ends and the middle.  So I napped most of the morning, did some running around in the afternoon, and watched a couple of my backlog of TV shows. Then I took a Klonopin a customer had given me and two over the counter sleep aids and slept for about 10 or 11 hours.  I awoke fairly refreshed and ready for today.  Of course, it is Friday and truck night, but I can do one 10 hour shift standing on my head because I have the whole weekend to recover.  

I put the weekly shopping of until tomorrow morning, then I plan a video marathon in the afternoon and evening .  Hopefully I will be able to clear my backlog of TV episodes I have not seen yet this season.  I keep track of what I have and have not watched with a site called TVMaze which is and interactive TV guide and social media site that makes keeping up with what you have missed easy and gives you an outlet to discuss you favorite shows with the TVMaze community.  Will turned me on to this site and it has been a wonderful tool to keep the video portion of my life organized.  Then on Sunday it is an NFL marathon.  So I should have fun this weekend

After nearly a week on the new computer, I continue to be amazed at the ease and speed with which I can accomplish things.  The HD video is absolutely stunning on the new monitor, and posting to my blog and tumblr is really a snap.  The only thing I can think of tho improve my computing platform would be new, larger faster HDDs, like the 1TB 7200 RPM  Western Digital ones I put on my Newegg.com Wish List.  But there are a couple of other priorities that will come before that purchase.  However, it will all come in good time with the appropriate diligence and patience as Will and I work toward our goals.  

Now, I have some great Music lined up for your listening pleasure today as well as a few visual delights to feed your over active imaginations.  Today's featured composer is Edvard Grieg (1843-1907).  Grieg produced only one complete mature string quartet, the String Quartet in g minor, Op. 27 dating from 1878 when he was 35. The historical record indicates that it was a challenge for Grieg, a composer who was perhaps more accustomed to writing in smaller forms such as his celebrated art songs and Romantic piano miniatures. Yet his remains one of the most original and influential string quartets of the late 19th century, approximately contemporaneous with the first important quartets from Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Borodin and Dvořák. It was written in the same year as César Franck's piano quartet with which it shares some prominent elements of innovative cyclic design. Grieg's quartet even managed to impress the aloof Debussy who, fifteen years later wrote his only quartet in the same key, with more than a few striking similarities. 

Like many composers (notably Schubert, Mendelsohn and Shostakovich), Grieg borrows from his own music for the main theme of the quartet: a portion of his somber song Spillamæd (Minstrels). The icy theme is announced in unison by the quartet right at the beginning, the emphatic slow introductory andante before the bristling allegro. Almost all of the musical material in the first movement is derived from it including several creative variations of the full theme itself in a wide range of expression and affect. There are at least eight clear permutations for the listener's delightful discovery. But like the cyclic designs of Franck and, later, Debussy, the theme extends beyond the bounds of the first movement to obliquely influence the second, reappear in the third and frame the fourth including a nearly literal restatement of the quartet's beginning just before the final conclusion. Though the complete work comprises a four-movement design with a great variety of music, it is fused together with a rare artistic unity.  Today's performance was recorded in the 1960 by the Copenhagen String Quartet.

Over on my tumblr, I have Grieg's Piano Concerto In A Minor, Opus 16 which was initially panned in the reviews at the time, but has gone on to become one of the most often performed Concerti in the modern Classical repertoire.  That performance is by the Danmarks Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Thomas Dausgaard with Alice Sara Ott as you Piano Soloist.  

As for the visual delights to feed your  imaginations, I have an eclectic collection of handsome hunks ranging from the innocence of youth and young love to the more mature and somewhat more intriguing flights of fancy in this week's edition of Fantasy Fuel posted down below.  Over on my tumblr Sasha Kosmos, Your Hottie of the Day!, seeks to entice you into his bed for what would surely be one intense encounter.  Thanks for the visit, see you again on Sunday for the Morning Concert.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Monday

My weekend meandered mundanely to a close yesterday with a boring night at work.  Both the Cowboys, who lost miserably at home to the Patriots, and the Rangers who also lost at home, provided no happy faces anywhere in town.  The best part of the night was coming home and putting on a roast to cook while I watched the rebroadcast of SNF.  It was a good game pitting the SF Forty-Niners in New York to play the Giants.  The good news was that the Forty-Niners lost, the bad news is the Giants won.  It really does not matter all that much, they are just 1 game ahead of everyone else in our division.  The roast turned out perfectly in the NuWave Oven in just 2.5 hours.  I swear that it is the best thing I ever did for my kitchen.  

Anyway, that brings us to Monday with Mozart and the indulgence in our mutual Underwear Fetish.  First the Music.  Your Monday with Mozart features two of his String Quartets.  Posted down below is the String Quartet Number 23 in F Major, KV590, Composed in Vienna in June 1790.  The Quartet is dedicated to Friedrich Wilhelm II, King of Prussia.  That performance is by the Festetics Quartet.  Over on my tumblr, I have Mozart's String Quartet Number 16 in E Flat Major, KV428 (421b) which was Composed in Vienna in June or July 1783. Published in 1785 as Op. 10 No. 4 with a dedication to Joseph Haydn.  That performance is by the Mosaiques Quartet.  

Then posted below the video, you will find an interesting mix of the beauty of youth with a healthy mix of the muscular and macho older dudes, all of whom are stunningly sexy and beautiful in this week's edition of Monday's Undies.  Over on my tumblr, a perennial favorite with a rock hard body, Rusty Joiner is your Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy! 

Tuesday's Music and Men

Monday was a seemingly endless day that sallied into the night leaving me all tuckered out by the time I returned home this morning.  So I took a nap, a long nap as it turns out.   I guess I needed the rest.  However that does not mean I get to skip a day just to be lazy.  I do have some great music and gorgeous guys lined up for you, so lets get to it.  

Peter van de Graaf, the Music Through The Night host on WRR was featuring Czech composers all program long.  I have also been hearing excerpts from Bedrich Smetana's masterpiece 'Ma Vlast' (My Homeland) on Venice Classic Radio a lot lately.  Therefore you are getting a goodly dose of Bedrich Smetana today.  Smetana was a Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music. Internationally he is best known for his opera The Bartered Bride; for the symphonic cycle Má vlast ("My Homeland"), which portrays the history, legends and landscape of the composer's native land; and for his First String Quartet, From My Life.  Posted down below is the Eterna recording of the complete 'Ma Vlast' cycle.  Recorded on 16th October 1967 in the Heilandskirche, Leipzig, it was first released in 1968.  This version is taken from the Eterna double LP 8 25 931-932 from 1973.  The performance is by the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under the baton of  Václav Neumann.  Over on my tumblr, the Smetana Quartet performs his famous String Quartet Number 1 in E Minor "From My Life".  

Then as it is Tuesday, it must be time for some smoldering sexiness chosen from among my many collections for this edition of Random Hotness posted down below.  Then over on my tumblr, your Hottie of the Day! invites you for 'A Walk in the Park'.  Thanks for hanging around 'til I got here.  See  you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Sunday Morning Concert

Good Morning!  Welcome to the premier edition of our Sunday Morning Concert Series.  I thought for our first concerts, I should choose something appropriately mellow for a Sunday Morning.  Then I thought intimate Chamber Music performances would fit the ticket quite well.  And who better to begin with than our featured Composer from the New Adventures in Good Music edition this week, Ludwig von Beethoven.  The Maestro wrote a total of 16 string quartets, so I went looking for some live performance videos of the Maestro's string quartets and came up with a couple of wonderful performances that were exactly what I had in mind.

In November of 2012 New York radio station WQXR held a Beethoven String Quartet Marathon with the hash tag #obeythoven.  The performances were by the Afiara String Quartet and were recorded live in The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space in New York.  I have chosen two of these performances to share with you this morning.  Posted down below is Beethoven's String Quartet Number 14 in C Sharp Minor, Opus 131.  Meanwhile over on my tumblr, you may join Afiara for their performance of the Maestro's String Quartet Number 1 in F Major, Opus 18.  

Finally this morning we add the perfect visual accoutrement to Beethoven's beautiful music with this week's edition of Naked or Nearly So chock full of seriously sultry sexiness posted down below.  Over on my tumblr, your Hottie of the Day! is burning up the page waiting for you to cruise by.  Thanks for sharing a part of your Weekend with me, see you tomorrow as we begin another week of Music, Men & More!  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Catching Up

I am making a sincere effort to catch up on all my little stuff that crops up from time to time along with the big things like rent and car repair.  That includes making note of a couple of things that were in the news over the Weekend on which I have not yet had a chance to comment.  Do not think for a moment that I failed to notice the Supreme Court action affirming the right to Marriage Equality for All Nationwide on Friday.  Especially in light of the post I wrote on Friday in eager anticipation of just such an event.  I was giddy with glee and emotionally overwhelmed all at the same time.  It has taken me a bit to assimilate the fact that for the first time in the 64 years and some odd days of my life, I am a fully recognized citizen of these United States with Civil Rights and all.  Pretty heady stuff for one who has had the official US Government stamp of disapproval on his head for most of his life.  This action coupled with The Letter granting my appeal to upgrade my discharge means it has been a pretty fucking awesome year so far for me.  Yeah, I have hit a few bumps in the road, but I am on a generally upward trend as a whole.  This is a very good thing and makes the bumps in the road seem less severe even if they really aren't.  Ain't that a kick in the ass for an old fart?  

The other big event of the Weekend was the Final Round of the inaugural Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival held at TCU's Ed Landreth Auditorium and their PepsiCo Hall.  The competition began  on Wednesday with 24 young Pianists ages 13-17 invited to participate.  Jon Nakamatsu, chairman of the jury for the First Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition and Festival (June 21-28, 2015), at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas, announced the winners on Sunday night from the Ed Landreth Auditorium stage.  The winner, Alim Beisembayev, 17, of Kazakhstan, daringly performed Van Cliburn's own signature performance piece, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mei-Ann Chen during the final round.  He gave this well known staple of the Piano repertoire a new life with his infusion of passion and power.  You can read who won what by clicking here. 

Now as long as we are on the subject of Classical Music, we may as well move into your featured performances for today.  You guys know I listen to a lot of Venice Classic Radio, more so now that I have the technology to carry it with me everywhere.  Listening to VCR exposes me to so much more Music than I have been familiar with in the past.  This morning I heard some works by today's featured composer, Gaetano Donizetti that I thought you all could appreciate also. Donizetti, along with Rossini and Bellini, was a leading composer of the bel canto style of Opera in the first half of the 19th century.  However he also composed some lesser know chamber works which is what I wish to share with you today.  Posted down below is a compilation of some of Doniazetti's Chamber works recorded by the Orchestra da Camera di Santa Cecilia and Conductor Alessio Vlad.  Performers on the recording include Vincenzo Bolognese, Mario Gangi, Rodolfo Bonucci, Alexandra Stefanato, Dino Asciolla, Arturo Bonucci, Massimo Taddei, and Pietro Spada.  The play list is diverse and features many works for solo or small ensemble performances.  That list includes;

01. Introduzione for string orchestra in D minor ( 07:49 )
02. Nocturne for winds & strings in E flat major ( 03:22 )
03. Nocturne for winds & strings in F minor ( 03:49 )
04. Nocturne for winds & strings in A flat major ( 02:13 )
05. Nocturne for winds & strings in F major ( 03:58 )
06. Amusement pathetique (from Anna Bolena), for violin & strings ( 12:28 )
07. String Quintet in C major (1st mvt. only) ( 06:10 )
08. Quintet for guitar & strings in C major ( 22:41 )
09. Sinfonia for winds in D major ( 05:28 )
10. Largetto for winds in F major ( 03:55 )
11. Moderato (untitled) for wind instruments & organ in B flat major ( 04:15 )
12. March for orchestra ( dedicated to Francesco Donizetti ) ( 03:05 )

Over on my tumblr you may indulge yourselves with Donizetti's String Quartets №3 in C minor & №5 in E minor with a performance by the Philharmonia Slavonica.  

One further note on Classical Music, you know how on You Tube and even VCR, the titles of the various pieces of music are written in different languages.  I found handy dandy little chart listing the French, German, Spanish and Italian equivalents to the English "do re mi fa so la ti do' of the Octave Scale to help me figure out the key in which the various works are written.  For example, F Sharp Major is fa dièse majuer in French and fa sostenido mayor in Spanish.  Where it gets tricky is German where the key of B Major is represented by H Dur and B Flat is represented by just plain B.  You can find and bookmark this nifty little chart here.

Finally for today comes the visual accoutrement to all the beautiful Music.  This Weekend is the Fourth of July, so to help get you in the proper mind set for Water Sports, Cookouts and other Festivities, I have this super sultry edition of Sexy Studs in Swimwear posted down below.  Meanwhile Your  Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr invites you to 'Share A Coke'.  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

The Letter

I suppose I should begin at the beginning.  There have been two letters of overwhelming significance in my life.  You all are by now familiar with my Naval service and the reason for my separation.  The first letter came into my life via my own hand in 1976, about a year after I had been summarily dismissed from the Navy as 'unfit'.  This after they gave me a medal for 'good conduct', ironic lol.  I had just returned to TX from California and ws temporarily residing at my parent's house.  I wrote the letter describing an adventure I had on the bus trip down which was very descriptive of the adventure.  Before mailing said letter (which never happened by the way) I placed it in my briefcase for transport.  It was there found by my  Mother in her quest for knowledge.  Unfortunately the knowledge she gained was not the knowledge she was seeking.  Thus began a 30+ year period of alienation between us.

Fast forward to the time of the DADT repeal and the fights for its passage.  I worked for that along with Obama's election.  Once the bill was passed, signed into law and then finally implemented, the law provided a section that allowed for an appeals process to the Review Boards of the respective services for veterans to have their less than honorable discharges for reasons of homosexuality to be reviewed.  I was separated in 1975 and the statute of limitations for such an appeal had long passed.  I was skeptical when Will suggested I apply for a review of my records, but I reluctantly agreed to do it.  That was in March of last year.  The government remained silent on the subject and I pretty much chalked it up as a failed experiment.  There had been no response to my request at all.  Until yesterday when the second letter of great significance in my life appeared before my eyes.

I retrieved the mail yesterday afternoon and found the letter with a return address from the Department of the Navy.  They had used the 'good' stationery.  I held the letter with trembling hands and went inside.  In the envelope was a cover letter on velum stationery and a 3 page official Department of the Navy document.  I read the cover letter then went through the document.  I excerpted the cover letter and redacted personal information.  You will find its rendering below this paragraph:

With tears in my eyes I showed the letter to Will.  I could not even speak, I could only motion to read the letter.  The letter contained Will's greatest gift to me.  The Board of review had granted my request for review after waiving the statute of limitations, done the review and ruled that my discharge was to be up graded to 'Honorable', the reason for my separation would be changed to 'Secreterial Authority" and all coding would show me as having served honorably and eligible for reenlistment.  Thus with the stroke of a pen, 40 years of stigma has been removed.  Without Will's prompting, this would never have happened. Would that this would have happened a long, long, long time ago.  Howver, it has at long last happened, something I never thought would.  One of my ealiest thoughts was it is too bad my Mother did not live to see this.  I really don't think having the official US Government Seal of Disapproval  removed from my life and records would have made much difference.  But it matters a whole hell of a lot to me that I feel vindicated.  The military now recognizes my just and honorable service and dedication to my country.  Just like every other LGBT Service Member presently serving or LGBT Veteran from the past.

  I really don't know quite what to think about this.  I have spent so many years castigating the government and its minions for their sins, I suppose now is the time to forgive them.  I still have to wait 6 months for the paperwork.  Maybe I will think about it then.  For now I just have to process the data and figure out what to do now that I am no longer a governmental 'persona non grata'.  

I am in the mood for some Tchaikovsky now, so you will find his String Quartet Number 1 in D Major, Opus 11 posted down below.  The Quartet is Tchaikovsky's first completed string quartet of three string quartets, published during his lifetime. (An earlier attempt had been abandoned after the first movement had been completed.) Composed in February 1871, it was premiered in Moscow on 16/28 March 1871 by four members of the Russian Musical Society: Ferdinand Laub and Ludvig Minkus, violins; Pryanishnikov, viola; and Wilhelm Fitzenhagen, cello.

The quartet has four movements: Moderato e semplice (D major) Andante cantabile (B♭ major) Scherzo. Allegro non tanto e con fuoco -- Trio (D minor) Finale. Allegro giusto -- Allegro vivace (D major).  Today's performers are not listed although it is a marvelous recording nonetheless.  Over on my tumblr you may join the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra under Conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev for their performance of Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings recorded live at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, 1991. 

Then there is a boatload of Random Hotness in the post down below, any one of which I am sure you would save from drowning should the boat develop a leak.  Over on my tumblr, the Hottie of the Day! invites you to a 'Picnic in Paradise'.  Thanks for stopping in, see you again soon.  I think I will go be weepy and emotional for a bit before I get over it.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

y

Brady Suspended for Playing With His Balls!

I took some small bit of perverse pleasure when I saw my least favorite NFL Quarterback hoisted on his own petard in the headlines of the Ft Worth Star Telegram and the Dallas Morning News.  Golden Boy Super Bowl MVP Tom Brady has been caught with his hands in his pants so to speak.  In last year's AFC Championship Game between Brady's Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts, Brady and his equipment man played with the balls leaving them under inflated, giving Brady a slight edge in throwing the ball in the cold temperatures.  Basically he cheated his way to another Super Bowl which he won only due to the worlds most incredibly stupid play call in the history of the Super Bowl.  However, I digress.  Brady has been suspended for 4 games with out pay, the Patriots have to pay a $1 Million fine and Belichick walks away unscathed to plan for another day.

I doubt Tom and Giselle will be missing any meals due to the suspension, but it might (and should)  cost the Patriots in the W-L category and Play Off Potential.   I actually think the Patriots should be barred from this years Play Offs.  This slap on the wrist shit really is ridiculous.  If you get caught cheating in the military, they kick you out.  In baseball, if you get caught cheating or gambling on the games, you get fired.  I don't see why Belichick and Brady should be any different.  Oh that's right, they have the SB Trophies, they can do no wrong, oh and they aren't Gay.  So it's all good.  (excuse me while I return my breakfast to the earth). If Michael Sam were a cheater, or a wife beater or even a druggie, he would be playing in the NFL.  Brady is a cheater  and he is playing in the NFL.  There is something seriously wrong with this picture.  All I know is Tom plays with the Patriots balls and he is in the NFL.  Michael plays with Vito's balls and he is not in the NFL.  Go figure.  

If you want to read all the dirty details, you can download the .pdf of the full report here or read Jim Buzinki's (of Outsports.com) cliff notes on deflate gate here or why Coach B sees this as an opportunity not a disaster here.  Bottom line it is always, always, always about the money.  Those who have and control it keep it and don't let anyone they do not like, agree with, or who refuse to have sex with them even a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting their hands on it.  C'est la Vie.  

We continue Ensemble Week today with the Music of Beethoven.  Beethoven, like Mozart before him, was a master of the intimate chamber ensemble repertoire.  Today we are showcasing one of his particular strengths, the String Quartet.  Performing for us today is the Borodin Quartet,  down below you will find their recording of Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 127 and 130.  You may join the Boys of Borodin over on my tumblr for Beethoven's String Quartet Opus 132.  

Then due to my random moodiness, we have  a randy lot of Random Hotness posted down below.  Meanwhile over on my tumblr, check out the Route 66 AYCE Buffet, Your Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for the visit, see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Tuesday's Musical Moment

Luigi Cherubini (8 or 14 September 1760 -- 15 March 1842) was an Italian composer who spent most of his working life in France. His most significant compositions are operas and sacred music. Beethoven regarded Cherubini as the greatest of his contemporaries.

Work: String Quartet No.1 in E-flat major (1814)

Mov.I: Adagio - Allegro moderato 00:00
Mov.II: Larghetto sans lenteur 11:58
Mov.III: Scherzo: Allegretto moderato 20:51
Mov.IV: Finale: Allegro assai 27:28

Ensemble: Quartetto David

Symphony in D Major - Vienna Philharmonic/Carlo Zecchi

Hottie of the Day!

Two for Tuesday - Intimate Moments

Wassup This Week?

I am feeling much better today, having gotten some much needed R & R over the last 24 hours.  I will continue to take it easy for the rest of the day before heading in to truck night at 10 PM.  I will be working the over night shift on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for the foreseeable future so I am glad those two days are sandwiched between two days off.  Hopefully I will be able to adjust my sleep schedule enough so that I don't end up losing sleep over this.  Enough about me, what else can we talk about today? Oh yeah, I know!

If you are a semi conscious male (and quite a few female) being with any passing interest in sports, you know this is Super Bowl Week.  The week leading up to the big game in Prime Time on Sunday between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots.  Even if you have no interest in sports and you have watched any show on NBC, then you too are aware of the hoopla.  I must be honest and say I am less  than thrilled with this year's participants, neither team is on my list of favorites and neither one of them are the Cowboys.  So sue me, I love my Cowboys.  

All that being said with Super Bowl XLIX looming large on the horizon, this may turn out to be the 'gayest' Super Bowl ever.  SB49 is the first SB where the NFL has issued media credentials to a Gay Media Outlet: Outsports.  Cyd Zeigler will bring you all the Phacts From Phoenix and provide the Gay Prospective from the Press Box of the world's biggest sports spectacle.  Then NBC has jumped on the inclusive bandwagon adding the team of Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski  to bring you their own particularly Phabulous Phoenix Commentary all week.  For that extra dose of 'the Gay' for the SB, check out the Gayest Logos in NFL History.  Then for you serious football fans or SB commercial fans here is the Gay Guide to Super Bowl XLIX to give you all Phab Phoenix Phacts.  Those links should get you started on this weeks excess of media attention given to this annual event.  I suppose I must watch, for the commercials if nothing else.  I just wish it would end in a tie and no one would be crowned champion this year.  Yeah, like that's gonna happen.....

Your Musical Moment for today features 6 Quartets for Flute, Violin, Viola and Cello by Federigo Fiorillo.  Although Fiorillo was born in Germany, his father was a Neopolitan who made the rounds of Europe as a conductor and director for many important personages and their orchestras and who gave Federigo his first musical lessons.  Today's performance is by Ensemble a l'Antica and the play list includes Quartets in F, D, C, G and A Major but the performance begins with Quartet Number 6 which is the only one in which Fiorillo wrote in the Minor Key of E.  Over on my tumblr you may 'cello out' with the Complete Cello Concerti of Giovanni Battisita Cirri while checking out the Hottie of the Day!  Thanks for the visit,  see you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy! 

One Last Look

This year is rapidly coming to a close.  This being New Years Eve and all, we have one last chance to do or say something in 2014.  As if you did not already know, I am a tremendous sports fan and am passionate about the NFL and especially my Dallas Cowboys.  My last look back at 2014 involves two sides of the same coin in the biggest sports story of the year.  I just so happens that the story comes out of the NFL and my Cowboys play a part in it.  Yesterday, Outsports announced its final two 2014 year end awards, both of which reflect the two sides of the NFL coin.  Let's start with the good side of the coin before we get to the bad and ugly on the other side.  

Outsports announced Michael Sam as their Person of the Year.  No other person or story rocked the news pages as well as the sports pages like the story of Michael Sam.  Michael,  who after successfully completing his Senior season at Missouri as SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Year came out publicly simultaneously in the New York Times, the ESPN Sports Network and Outsports.  This set in motion the drama that is continuing to this day.  Michael was drafted by the St Louis Rams, but not until almost the end of the last round, far further down than someone of his talents and pedigree should have.  Ultimately the Rams cut Michael as if anything the Rams are knee deep in high cotton when it comes to defensive lineman.  So the cut was understandable on that factor.  

This is where the Cowboys come in.  The Cowboys, a few days after Michael was cut by the Rams, signed him to their Practice Squad.  Michael worked hard to improve his skills and did not prove to be any distraction in the locker room, on or off the field.  Unfortunately, Michael was never called up from the Practice Squad, has since been released by the Cowboys and is currently out of football.  Michael still retains the dream of playing in the NFL and is actively working towards that goal.  He also does not believe it is solely his skill set that has him as the only NFL rookie with a similar pedigree without a spot on a team.  Neither do I.  While I do not believe my Cowboys to be homophobic and that Michael could have contributed on the defense this year, the powers that be were working behind the scenes to limit the amount of history that Michael was going to make this year and that was not to include an appearance in a regular season game.  As much progress as has been made in pro sports in general and the NFL in particular, we still have a long way to go.  No matter how far that journey takes us, Michael Sam's place in NFL and LGBT history is already set in stone.  Let's hope he can add to the story in the very near future.  

The other side of the NFL coin was personified by Outsports Asshole of the Year.  I could not agree with their selection  former NFL head coach and current NBC NFL Analyst Tony Dungy more.  Dungy's vociferous homophobic rants in the wake of Michael Sam's coming out were based on the Evangelical Christian Handbook of Homophobia.  Dungy was also the public face of the Old School NFL cadre whose morality was always based more on money than morals.  It is a shame that those such as Dungy and his backward thinking should continue to have so great a public forum to spout dreck and drivel about persons or things of which he has no genuine knowledge.  Dungy is unapologetic and recalcitrant in his homophobia and so richly deserves the moniker Asshole of the Year.   

For your final Musical Moment of 2014, I have chosen the Quartet for Violin, Viola and 2 Cellos in A Major by Russian Pianist, Composer and Music Professor Anton Arensky.  Today performance is by the Music Department of Stony Brook University represented by Soovin Kim, Violin; Nicholas Cords, Viola; Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir, Cello and Colin Carr, Cello.  You may also hear Arensky's Piano Trio Number 1 in D Minor performed by the Beaux Arts Trio over on my tumblr.  

I have some super hot selections for this years final Wet Wednesday collection full of svelte studs scurrying about the beaches and pools or steaming up the showers of the world around us.  These guys will make you want to take your clothes off and get wet all over right along with them.  You will find them awaiting your perusal below the video.  Then if your thirst for wonderful wetness still abounds, try slaking it a bit with the Macho Mojito Hottie of the Day! over on my tumblr.  Thanks for a great year, join me again tomorrow  as we begin another year's journey that is Nichevo.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!

Thursday Night Football

The Dallas Cowboys are in Chicago tonight to play the Bears on Thursday Night Football.  In order to watch the game, I traded shifts with the night guy, so I will be working 12-7 instead of 5-11.  This means there will probably not be a post tomorrow as after I get off at 7, I have to return 10 hours later for a 10 hour shift.  I will most likely just head to bed and forgo any journalistic or artistic endeavors then regroup for the Saturday Evening Concert.  As for at the game goes, I hope the results of this game are more pleasing than last Thursday's game.  It all depends on which QB's show up:  Bad Jay Cutler and Good Tony Romo or vice versa.  I am hoping for the former rather than the latter.  We shall see tonight.  

Your Thursday Musical Moment features the Music of Luigi Boccherini with 3 String Quintets and a Quartet.  Included in the play list are Quintet in B flat Op 39.1 G337; Quintet in F Op 39.2 G338; Quintet in D Op 39.3 G339 and Quartet in G major, Op.44.4 G223 ("La Tiranna").  Today's performance is by Ensemble 415.  Over on my tumblr you may hear Europa Galante's performance of Boccherini's String Quintet in C major, Op. 25 No. 4 G. 298.

 To complement the marvelous Music, I have a little collection mucho machismo in denim on display below the play list in this week's edition of Men in Jeans.  Over on my tumblr, the Hottie of the Day!, Matt Ballin will be sure to inspire a little desire for a sporting adventure.  Thanks for the visit, I am now going to try to rest up some before the chores and errands this afternoon and the game tonight.  I don't want to have to struggle to say awake on the midnight shift!  See you again soon.  Until next time as always, Enjoy!