And So It Goes

Today is June 14, 2025, Flag Day, and the day when millions of fed-up Americans took to the streets to rise up against an unproclaimed king, Donald J. Chump. I won’t even mention his fucking “perade” (this is how the clown in chief spelled the word on his social platform) that he threw for himself in Washington, D.C., that cost millions in taxpayer dollars. Did anyone even watch it?

So I’m back from protesting with possibly 250,000 angry New Yorkers in the intermittent rain. Unlike Los Angeles, we had no pushback from the scores of police officers assigned to the march. Everyone was courteous, friendly, and feeling a little soggy from the rain that fell from 2 through about 4:20, the time when I finally reached Madison Square Park. When the march was over, I experienced a fallen flag (it fell off its pole), a sign that slipped from my grasp (the one that said, “No kings are welcomed here!” with a picture of Dump in full military regalia goose-stepping on a missile that I cut from an article in The Week), and what I thought to be a broken umbrella. Thank God it functioned after the demonstration was over. It was very difficult to keep one sign aloft as I marched with thousands of New Yorkers down Fifth Avenue. I tried to make the best of it. I was supposed to have met up with a member from my phantom group and, as expected, I never met him. I got to Cha Cha Matcha before 1:45 and waited until about 2 before I waded into the line of protesters.

After the march, I had to grab a little lunch, so I walked into a McDonald’s on 23rd Street. I walked down to Barnes & Noble on 16th Street to use the restroom and then walked to 13th Street to buy a ticket for 1980’s Cruising at the Quad Theater. The film was scheduled to go on at 7, so I walked to the Donut Pub for a cup of coffee and an old-fashioned donut.

This is the film that drew waves of protest when it opened 45 years ago, in which Al Pacino portrays straight patrolman Steve Burns who is offered an assignment by the chief of police (Paul Sorvino) to go undercover to apprehend a sicko who is stabbing homosexuals in the S&M leather underworld. Seeing this many years later, I thought Pacino was very underwhelming and restrained as the officer who is involved with Karen Allen on the side, but undergoes some sort of metamorphosis as he is expected to perform in his novel guise as a promiscuous gay man. He cannot tell his girlfriend, Nancy (Allen) about his new, dangerous assignment. You never really see Pacino doing anything with his hookups. He was too big a star to have him shed his clothes for an on-screen sexual encounter. I’m not sure if the original film was rated X; this copy received an R rating. Overall, the film is not very satisfying, even, as a procedural or as a thriller. The cinematography is very grainy too. But it’s still a surprise that the movie was directed by William Friedkin who directed The Exorcist in 1973. He did have, however, an early iconic gay film success in The Boys in the Band from 1969. I’m glad, however, I saw this artifact from 45 years ago during Pride Month.

Now I’m tired from this exhausting day. One good thing about the weather, if you can say it, is that it wasn’t warm as it was on April 19. I could have done without the rain, though.

As you know, this day began terribly with the killings of two lawmakers in Minnesota. “This is an act of targeted political violence,” as Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has indicated. A masked gunman disguised as a police officer killed the state representative and her husband and wounded a state senator and his wife. The suspect has now been identified as a 57-year-old man. Blame for this repulsive act should be directed toward the occupant in the White House whose own rhetoric is so inflammatory that he has allowed extremism in his far-right supporters to flourish and fester throughout the land! It’s time that ALL elected lawmakers take a stand against this awful trend.

Anyway, that’s enough from me on this very long day! For those who celebrate, have a great Father’s Day tomorrow.

And so it went!