Rod McKuen: 1933-2015

In 1969 Frank Sinatra released A Man Alone, an album written for him by Rod McKuen.
No idea if Ol' Blue Eyes realised but it's clearly a sequence of songs about being an aging queen.
Heart smashing stuff.
One of my favourite albums.
x

Fagburn: Review Of The Year 2013

"When I was *cough cough*-five
It was a very good year.
It was a very good year
For Tom Daley came out and Thatcher died
and now you can marry a guy
if you want to and have one 
but I don't... " : (

From Here To Eternity: Blow Me

Most of the broadsheets have gone big on this story;
'Censored gay sex in From Here to Eternity restored for new edition', as The Guardian teased titularly.
Really?
I'm not sure why so many papers went big on it as there's so little to it, hence most contain enough padding to stuff a queen-size mattress..
If you were looking forward to reading the (ebook) reissue with just the one hand you may be slightly disappointed;
"...the original text of the novel included two scenes which never made it to the published edition, let alone the film. In one, private Angelo Maggio – the soldier played by Frank Sinatra in the 1953 film – confesses to having oral sex with a wealthy man for $5 or $10 that "comes in handy the middle of the month". In the second scene a military investigation into gay activity is mooted."
It's hardly Straight To Hell, is it?
Apparently the offending passage was excised from James Jones' 1951 novel to appease the "influential" Book of the Month Club and the US postal service.
These days a sales-slut publisher would probably call for more bummery to be added.