Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Thursday, May 31, 2018

Watch Radio 1 Stories : Love for Men. Love for Football with the fabulous @JoeyWh1te @audioalways @BBCR1 @Arsenal @gaygooners @LBArsenalWFan @Konijnvanolland @nomadicboys @londontitansfc @londonfalcons @LondonUnityLg

I was honoured to be asked to take part in Joe's little film for BBC Radio 1 about going to the World Cup in Russia. I urged him to go.

Watch the video here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p067zhsj/radio-1-stories-love-for-men-love-for-football

"Will Russia's attitude to LGBT rights stop football-mad Joe White going to the World Cup? He’s torn between supporting England and the risk of being targeted for his sexuality.

Joe has a World Cup ticket and he never usually misses the chance to cheer on his country, home and away. But he knows that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Russia face many legal and social challenges not experienced by straight people.

As Joe battles between his love for men and his love for football, he speaks to other young gay football fans and those who have experienced life in modern Russia, before deciding if his passion for sport outweighs the possibility of violence."


Monday, May 28, 2018

Washington DC : From Downtown to Downtime....

Our last day in DC was very relaxing. We visited the odd museum and took it easy.

We then took the train back to Philadelphia and waited at the famous 30th Street Station for our train to the airport.

We were leaving thunderstorms in the US to what we heard are more back in the UK. 

Bumpy night flight ahead I fear! 






Saturday, May 26, 2018

Washington DC : From Georgetown to Black Pride...

It’s been an exciting third day of contrasts in America’s capital city: we went to Georgetown, visited the Old Stone House, the Tudor Place Mansion, various historic churches, Oak Hill Cemetery, Dumbarton Oaks house and museum, the C&O canal, Georgetown Waterfront Park, downed a few beers in Martin’s Tavern, and of course visited The Exorcist steps.

After some supper at Clyde’s we headed to gay hangout The Fireplace and spent the night in a crowded bar chatting to most of the 200-300 people there celebrating Black Pride. We were two of only three white people in the place and needless to say we had a absolute riot of a night. Our English accents went down a storm.





















Friday, May 25, 2018

Washington DC : From Memorials to Nellies...

It’s been a fascinating second day of contrasts in America’s capital city: we visited the White House Visitors Center, walked through Arlington National Cemetery, watched a military funeral procession, walked to the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial, the FDR Memorial, the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, the Washington Monument, saw Trump’s helicopter, took snaps of the White House, bought White House memorabilia, ate Amish, visited the famous gay drinking hole Nellies, and then went topless for free drinks at the Green Lantern. 





















Thursday, May 24, 2018

Washington DC : From Politics to Jockstraps...

It’s been an interesting first day in America’s capital city: we walked the National Mall, took a tour of the U.S. Capitol Building, marvelled at the beautiful Library of Congress, ate at the Eastern Market, thoroughly explored three of the seven Smithsonian museums (Air and Space, Natural History, and Hirshhorn), ate jambalaya at Georgia Brown’s, and managed to avoid the gaze of the all-but butt naked go-go boys at local gay watering hole the Green Lantern. 





















Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Philadelphia : The Rocky Steps...

This morning we had the breakfast of champions and then ran up the Rocky Steps to work it all off. I wanted to video Stu running up the Steps while I sang hummed the song but he said I was an idiot. Which to be fair, I am.

And that funny things at breakfast is called scrapple. The scrapple ingredient list is pig off cuts: snouts, tails, trotters, hearts, lips, ears, assholes, eyeballs, livers, spleens, tongues, oh and its primary ingredient corn meal. Basically, everything but the oink!

















Philadelphia : Barnes Foundation...

If you like the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists you have probably heard of the Barnes Foundation. Barnes was an American collector who amassed an incredible collection and thankfully due to poor finances have now been put on show more widely. The collection is said to worth upward of $25 billion. 
This includes:-
181 paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir 
69 by Paul Cézanne 
59 by Henri Matisse 
46 by Pablo Picasso 
21 by Chaim Soutine 
18 by Henri Rousseau 
16 by Amedeo Modigliani 
11 by Edgar Degas 
11 by Giorgio de Chirico 
7 Vincent van Gogh and
6 by Georges Seurat
It is a bewildering collection and demonstrates the power of the private collector.