"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together

Jimmie Rodgers (pop singer from the late 50’s and early 60’s; “Honeycomb”, “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine”) sings “Secretly” over vintage photographs of guys together. This video is a tribute to all those lovers in the past who shared their moments 'secretly.' There is nothing new about being young, gay and in love. The video was first posted at GAYTWOGETHER.COM

"Secretly" - A Vintage Montage Of Guys Together from MJS on Vimeo.

Applauding my husband’s birthday

On February 10, I am celebrating my husband’s birthday. E has decided to mark this special birthday year by trying out for the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. In an email to friends you can feel the exhilaration he has for this:

“After an absence of THIRTY years (oh, Lordy, how CAN I be that old?) from singing in any formal, choral group, I decided that as I hit a significant birthday next month I needed to return to my first love, singing. (Kids, work, nonprofit work, etc. had kept me away all these years.) So, I got my nerve together, prepared a solo (yes, it was harrowing!) and tried out for the 'world-famous' (right?) San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. I am so excited. It is really going to be a lot of work with very difficult music. My first concert with them will by in Davies Symphony Hall (where SF Symphony performs) in April.”

I am so proud of him. I am finally going to get to see the artistic talent that’s been bottled up for a while.

Like I did with my birthday last month, we will party with other musicians born on the same day.

Born on this day, 1937, Don Wilson, rhythm guitarist, Ventures (Walk Don’t Run)

1937, Roberta Flack, notable singer of jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music (The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Killing Me Softly with His Song, and Feel Like Makin' Love)

1940, Jimmy Merchant, vocalist, Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers, (Why Do Fools Fall in Love)

1949, Nigel Olsson, drummer, Elton John band (Burn Down the Mission)

1961, Robbie Neville, singer, (C'est La Vie)

1962 Cliff Burton, bass guitarist, Metallica (Creeping Death)

1974, Ivri Lider, Israeli singer (Jesse)

Six Degrees of Facebook

We have completed seeing just about all the Oscar nominated movies for 2010 in the various categories. After watching “Social Network”, the movie about Mark Zuckerberg and the founding Facebook, E realized that he experienced two close connections to several characters in the story.

First connection: E and his ex-wife bought their first house in Palo Alto from the parents of the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler. This was in the mid-80’s when the twins were around 4-years old. Today the twins are suing Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook for stealing their social networking idea when they were all students at Harvard University.

Second connection: Sean Parker was one of the founders (along with Shawn Fanning) of Napster and Facebook's founding president. E consulted briefly with Napster and its founder. In the movie Justin Timberlake portrays Sean as a cash-hungry, hardy-partier. In several interviews Sean described the movie as "a complete work of fiction” and that he wished his life "was that cool". E found the real Sean to be very professional and personable.

We know several Facebook employees but we have not seen Mark Zuckerberg. Some of our friends have seen him walking around town.

[UPDATE] 10 days after posting this entry, we had dinner with Mark Zuckerberg...sort of. He and his girlfriend came in and sat down at the table next to us at a small, crowded, vegetarian restaurant in Palo Alto. He was wearing his trademark blue hoodie.

The movie, Social Network, was well done and very entertaining even though it plays fast and loose with the facts. But we both think “The King’s Speech” is going to win the Oscars.

Me, Naked Men, and Raw Music Appreciation

About two years ago I came across a vintage photograph of a naked young man playing records and listening to music. It stopped me in my tracks and made me laugh. Somewhere in my files or photo albums there is a similar picture of me when I was in my twenties sitting buck-naked on the floor spinning records. Since then I have come across several more au naturel musical enjoyment photos on the web.

After extensive searching, I finally found my long hidden away explicit photo. It is just me and nothing but the music. Doesn't music sound better when naked?

A young, naked Ed from GuyDads enjoying musical pleasure with his records.

My unclothed picture was taken in 1982 when I was in my early 20's. I had finished college not long before and started working at my first job. To unwind at the end of the day, I would strip off my tie, shirt and slacks and sit in front of my record player/stereo/tape player with my headphones on and pretend I was a “free-form” FM disc jockey playing rock, pop, jazz and country songs. Ahhhh. The good old days. It has been very long time since I’ve sat around with it all hanging out listening to music. Is it one of those bygone joys of youth?

The other tasteful pictures of uncovered musical gratification and pleasure come from a series of blogs by Wayne at http://waynes-nude-musicians.blogspot.com/ and http://blueguitar.tumblr.com/ Both are NSFW and are for adults only! These blogs explore the seemingly unlikely but exciting intersection of nudity and music. It is a wonderful mix of pictures, music clips, videos, art and sex.

I guess today's kids listen to music on their iPods.

Want to see more cool, sexy men? Check out my blog entry called Men, Music and Record Players and the sequel, Men, Music and Records on Repeat.