#cassidy scanlon

[ulkaralakbarova]

Based on the autobiographical novel, the tempestuous 6-year relationship between Liberace and his (much younger) lover, Scott Thorson, is recounted. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Liberace: Michael Douglas Scott Thorson: Matt Damon Seymour Heller: Dan Aykroyd Bob Black: Scott Bakula Dr. Jack Startz: Rob Lowe Ray Arnett: Tom Papa Mr. Felder: Paul Reiser Carlucci: Bruce Ramsay Mr. Y: Nicky Katt Billy Leatherwood: Cheyenne Jackson Tracy Schnelker: Mike O’Malley Adoption Attorney: David Koechner Cary James: Boyd Holbrook Frances: Debbie Reynolds Lou: Eric Zuckerman Assistant Director: Eddie Jemison Director: Randy Lowell Stunt Actor: Tom Roach Camera Assistant: Shamus Cooley Sound Mixer: John Smutny Rose Carracappa: Jane Morris Joe Carracappa: Garrett M. Brown George Liberace: Pat Asanti Dora Liberace: Casey Kramer Assistant Stage Manager: James Kulick Make-up Artist: Paul Witten Gladys: Deborah Lacey Sue: Susan Caroll Todd Backstage Flirt: Austin Stowell Backstage Flirt: Francisco San Martin Stagehand: Anthony Crivello Scott’s Half-Brother, Wayne: Kiff VandenHeuvel Dorothy: Nikea Gamby-Turner June: Charlotte Crossley Liberace’s Attorney: Josh Meyers Joel Strote: Harvey J. Alperin Dr. Ronald Daniels: Jerry Clarke Anchorwoman: Lisa Frantz Health Department Spokesman: Shaun T. Benjamin Priest at Funeral: John Philip Kavcak Young American Dancer (uncredited): Kelly Allen Funeral Mourner (uncredited): Gregg Atwill Patron (uncredited): Greg Baine Guy Outside Casino (uncredited): Brian Blu Party Guest (uncredited): Paul Borst Angie Liberace (uncredited): Barbara Brownell Sex Club Patron (uncredited): Lee Christian Kazarian (uncredited): Kass Connors Showgirl (uncredited): Jacquelyn Dowsett Concert Fan (uncredited): Timothy Skyler Dunigan Deposition Reporter (uncredited): Fielding Edlow French Guy #2 (uncredited): Corey Eid Impossible Dream Dancer (uncredited): Krystal Ellsworth Young American Dancer (uncredited): Kelli Erdmann Hair Stylist (uncredited): Amber Lee Ettinger Young American (uncredited): Derek Ferguson Adult Bookstore Patron (uncredited): Joe Filippone Adult Bookstore Worker (uncredited): Aussie Guevara Dancer (uncredited): Brandon Henschel Young American Dancer (uncredited): Kara Hess Stage Manager (uncredited): Lenny Jacobson Mourner (uncredited): Richard Allan Jones Valet (uncredited): Adam J. Kassel Impossible Dream Dancer (uncredited): Dominique Kelley Cameraman (uncredited): David Dustin Kenyon Theatre Stage Hand (uncredited): Kirk Krogstad Billy (uncredited): Kristin Lindquist Showgirl (uncredited): Rachael Markarian Patron (uncredited): Hugo Pierre Martin Sex Club Worker (uncredited): Paul McDade Young American Dancer (uncredited): KC Monnie Bar Patron (uncredited): Max Napolitano Tailor (uncredited): Gregory Niebel Show Boy (uncredited): Cassidy Noblett Dancer (uncredited): Ryan Novak Young American (uncredited): Meredith Ostrowsky Sex Couple #1 (uncredited): Lance Patrick Liberace Showgirl (uncredited): Brittany Perry-Russell Dancer (uncredited): Ferly Prado On-Air News Reporter (uncredited): Mike Jerome Putnam Maitre d’ (uncredited): Thure Riefenstein Second Anchorwoman (uncredited): Stephanie Maura Sanchez News Reporter (uncredited): Jimmy Scanlon French Guy #1 (uncredited): Roby Schinasi Reporter (uncredited): Nellie Sciutto Bookstore Patron (uncredited): Franklin J. Sterns Startz Surgeon (uncredited): C.J. Stussi Showgirl (uncredited): Becca Sweitzer Stagehand (uncredited): Trace Taylor Stagehand (uncredited): Anna Wendt Print Reporter (uncredited): Ryken Zane Nightclub Patron (uncredited): Judy Bruno Bennett Bookstore Guy (uncredited): Cal Rein Reporter (uncredited): Brian Neil Hoff Young American Dancer (uncredited): Nick Lanzisera Mourner (uncredited): Charles Moniz Showgirl (uncredited): Ayesha Orange Young American Dancer (uncredited): Jason Williams Self (archive footage) (uncredited): Johnny Carson Self (archive footage) (uncredited): Peggy King Film Crew: Editor: Steven Soderbergh Screenplay: Richard LaGravenese Book: Scott Thorson Book: Alex Thorleifson Producer: Susan Ekins Fir...

[pussymagicuniverse]

Revisiting Adrienne Rich’s "Twenty-One Love Poems"

Published in 1977, Adrienne Rich’s Twenty-One Love Poems was one of her first books that addressed lesbian identity and desire. This revelatory context is felt throughout the work, as she details the tender and painful experiences of a lesbian relationship.  

I discovered this book a few years back in Córdoba, Argentina, where I was visiting a boyfriend who loved independent bookstores as much as I did. At the time, I struggled to reconcile my queerness and my relationship with a straight man, and this manifested in my fixation with lesbian feminist literature.

Veintiún poemas de amor was a small sliver in a pile of books, but the familiarity of Rich’s name convinced my hand to pull it from the shelf. Published by the small press Postales Japonesas and translated by Sandra Toro, each page features the English version of the poems and a Spanish translation. 

Later that day, my partner and I alternated reading each of the poems, mine in English, his in Spanish. I wanted to hear them spoken in a different language than what Adrienne intended, curious to discover if they had the same effect as reading the work. Although he sounded beautiful, I couldn’t help but be disappointed.

The ache and longing was lost in translation; his voice seemed exist on a different plane. It was alienating, clutching at a part of my identity that felt nonexistent in my present circumstances. I wasn’t experiencing bi-erasure, which often feels like oscillating between an impossible dichotomy. This was different; my love for women was a lake frozen over, and I was trying to break the ice with a pen. 

In the fourth poem of the collection, where Adrienne addresses the lack of lesbian and female experiences in literature, she writes:

“…we still have to stare into the absence of men who would not, women who could not, speak to our life–this still unexcavated hole called civilization, this act of translation, this half-world.” 

This half-world felt like a room of mirrors, where I saw reflections of myself everywhere, but only when I stepped inside it. These poems acted like a count-down to my break-up and reawakening to my queerness. I began to see my love of women everywhere, even in objects and places that weren’t explicitly “female.” Rocks, buildings, the awnings of trees spoke to me in whispers, reminding me of who I was. The eleventh poem of the collection reveals the way our external world acts as an echo of our interior lives. It opens with the lines:

“Every peak is a crater. This is the law of volcanoes, making them eternally and visibly female.”  

Twenty-One Love Poems queers the famous work by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. Written in 1924 when he was only 19-years-old, the book was controversial due to its frank depictions of sexual content. Almost a hundred years after its publication, it remains widely read and purchased.

I was aware of Neruda, but not enough to understand or care about his work. When researching for this piece, I read through Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair. His poetic portrayals of sex made me uncomfortable, as his metaphors were lewd and painfully tacky (i.e. “Body of skin, of moss, of firm and thirsty milk!”). The first poem in his collection is called “Body of a Woman,” and includes the stanza:

“I was lonely as a tunnel. Birds flew from me. And night invaded me with her powerful army. To survive I forged you like a weapon, like an arrow for my bow, or a stone for my sling.” 

While reading his poems, I discovered a pattern of violence when describing love and desire. Neruda’s poem “I Have Gone Marking” begins up with the line: “I have gone marking the atlas of your body with crosses of fire.”

I asked myself: Is this what men find erotic? The visceral experience of weaponizing a woman’s body for their own protection and pleasure? Patriarchy created a system that weaves intimacy with violence, to the point where one is indistinguishable without the other. These images flowed through Neruda’s consciousness as he wrote, planted by the repetitive models of heterosexual coupling.  

His descriptions of pleasure are equally reflective of these socialized patterns. In his poem “Drunk with Pines,” he writes:

“Hardened by passions, I go mounted on my one wave, lunar, solar, burning and cold, all at once, becalmed in the throat of the fortunate isles that are white and sweet as cool hips.” 

Is this the kind of writing that impacts our world? Pablo Neruda’s Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair is one of the best-selling poetry books in the Spanish language. I wonder, what would the world look like if Adrienne Rich’s work had the same impact, if women-loving eroticism could alter the male-centric model of human sexuality? 

In her essay “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Audre Lorde states:

“The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling.”

This articulation of eroticism, especially within images evoked through writing, is what runs through my head when I read Pablo’s work. Men are obsessed with the “universality” of their literary canon, asserting that women’s writing is so obviously female and esoteric. The irony makes me laugh; for when men write about eroticism and desire, it’s so clearly rooted in their own preoccupations and sexual experiences.

Meanwhile, Adrienne Rich embraces the lesbian perspective as a subjective, personal experience. She writes about the limitations placed on her sexuality by a heterosexist society and how she struggles to live openly in a world that forces people like her to remain closeted. Her eroticism is infused with feeling, not purely sensation. It’s undeniably lesbian, and this deliberate focal point is what makes it impactful.

In my favorite poem, the second one of the collection, she writes:

“…I dreamed you were a poem, I say, a poem I wanted to show someone… and I laugh and fall dreaming again of the desire to show you to everyone I love, to move openly together in the pull of gravity, which is not simple…” 

I think of how gravity is taken for granted, how we are all bound by an invisible force that makes life possible. Women who love women gravitate to one another by energy that cannot be explained. We use language to describe love, desire, and romance, but it remains inadequate in the face of feeling. Yet despite this, lesbian writers continue to write. If only to capture a small, inconsistent fragment of a narrative that exists beyond words.

Cassidy Scanlon is a Capricorn poet and witch who uses her artistic gifts as a channel for healing herself and others. She writes poetry and CNF about mental health, astrology, queer love, pop culture representation, and how social structures shape our perceptions of history and mythology. When she’s not writing, she can be found petting the local stray cats, exploring the swamps of Florida, reading 5 books at a time, and unwinding with her Leo girlfriend. 

You can visit her astrology blog Mercurial Musings and explore more of her publications on her website. 

[flaneuresse]

Untitled by Cassidy Scanlon on Flickr.

𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆

[whatsoeverislovelyandpure]

Victorian Summer Idyll, by Cassidy Scanlon.

[atheistcartoons]

Thanks to the heroic work of Catherine Corless, here are the names of the seven hundred and ninety-six children who died in a Tuam mother and baby home run by the Catholic Church in collusion with the government in Ireland, and whose bodies were thrown into a septic tank at the site pictured above. 

This was one mother and baby home. There is evidence to suggest that we can expect similar results from the many other Irish mother and baby homes (and this is without talking about Magdalene Laundries).

I’m not putting any of this under a Read More link. I’m just not.

1925

Patrick Derrane 5 months Mary Blake 4 months Matthew Griffin 3 months Mary Kelly 6 months Peter Lally 11 months Julia Hynes 1 year James Murray 1 month

1926

Joseph McWilliam 6 months John Mullen 3 months Mary Wade 3 years Maud McTigue 6 years Bernard Lynch 3 years Martin Shaughnessy 18 months Bridget Glynn 1 year Margaret Glynn 1 year Patrick Gorham 21 months Patrick O’Connell 1 year John Carty 21 months Madeline Bernard 2 years Maureen Kenny 8 years Kathleen Donohue 1 year Thomas Donelan 2 years Mary Quilan 2 years Mary King 9 months Mary Warde 21 months George Coyne 2 years Julia Cummins 18 months Barbara Fola/ Wallace 9 months Pauline Carter 11 months Mary Walsh 1 year Annie Stankard 10 months John Connelly 9 months Anthony Cooke 1 month Michael Casey 3 years Annie McCarron 2 months Patricia Dunne 2 months John Carty 3 months Peter McNamara 7 weeks Mary Shaughnessy 4 months Joseph Coen 5 months Mary Murphy 2 months Patrick Kelly 2 months Martin Rabbitte 6 weeks Kathleen Quinn 7 months Patrick Halpin 2 months Martin McGuinness 6 months

1927

Mary Kate Connell 3 months Patrick Raftery 7 months Patrick Paterson 5 months James Murray 1 month Colman O’ Loughlin 5 months Agnes Canavan 18 months Christina Lynch 15 months Mary O’Loughlin 6 months Annie O’ Connor 15 months John Greally 11 months Joseph Fenigan 4 years Mary Connolly 2 months James Muldoon 4 months Joseph Madden 3 months Mary Devaney 18 months

1928

Michael Gannon 6 months Bridget Cunningham 2 months Margaret Conneely 18 months Patrick Warren 8 months James Mulryan 1 month Mary Kate Fahey 3 years Mary Mahon 1 month Martin Flanagan 1 month Mary Forde 4 months Patrick Hannon 20 months Michael Donellan 6 months Joseph Ward 7 months Walter Jordan 3 years Mary Mullins 1 month

1929

Peter Christian 7 months Mary Cunningham 5 months James Ryan 9 months Patrick O’Donnell 9 months Mary Monaghan 4 years Patrick O’Malley 1 year Philomena Healy 11 months Michael Ryan 1 year Patrick Curran 6 months Patrick Fahy 2 months Laurence Molloy 5 months Patrick Lynskey 6 months Vincent Nally 21 months Mary Grady 18 months Martin Gould 21 months Patrick Kelly 2 months

1930

Bridget Quinn 1 year William Reilly 9 months George Lestrange 7 months Christy Walshe 15 months Margaret Mary Gagen 1 year Patrick Moran 4 months Celia Healy 5months James Quinn 4 years Bridget Walsh 15months

1931

Patrick Shiels 4 months Mary Teresa Drury 1 year Peter O’Brien 18 months Peter Malone 18 months Carmel Moylan 8 months Mary Burke 10 months Mary Josephine Garvey 5 months Mary Warde 10 months Catherine Howley 9 months Michael Pat McKenna 3 months Richard Raftery 3 months

1932

Margaret Doorhy 8 months Patrick Leonard 9 months Mary Coyne 1 year Mary Kate Walsh 2 years Christina Burke 1 year Mary Margaret Jordan 18 months John Joseph McCann 8 months Teresa McMullan 1 year George Gavin 1 year Joseph O’Boyle 2 months Peter Nash 1 year Bridget Galvin 3 months Margaret Niland 3 years Christina Quinn 3 months Kathleen Cloran 9 years Annie Sullivan 8 months Patricia Judge 1 year Mary Birmingham 9 months Laurence Hill 11 months Brendan Patrick Pender 1 month Kate Fitzmaurice 4 months Baby Mulkerrins 5 days Angela Madden 3 months Mary McDonagh 1 year

1933

Mary C Shaughnessy 1 month Mary Moloney 11 months Patrick Joseph Brennan 1 months Anthony O’Toole 2 months Mary Cloherty 9days Joseph Fahy 10 months Mary Finola Cunniffe 6 months Martin Cassidy 5 months Francis Walsh 3 months Mary Garvey 4 months Kathleen Gilchrist 8 months Mary Kate Walsh 1 months Eileen Fallon 18 months Harry Leonard 3 years Mary Kate Guilfoyle 3 months John Callinan 3 months John Kilmartin 2 months Julia Shaughnessy 3 months Patrick Prendergast 6 months Bridgid Holland 2 months Bridgid Moran 15 months Margaret Mary Fahy 15 months Bridgid Ryan 9 months Mary Brennan 4 months Mary Conole 1 months John Flattery 2 years Margaret Donohue 10 months Joseph Dunn 3 years Owen Lenane 2 months Josephine Steed 3 months Mary Meeneghan 3 months James McIntyre 4 months

1934

John Joseph Murphy 4 months Margaret Mary O’Gara 2 months Eileen Butler 2 months Thomas Molloy 2 months James Joseph Bodkin 6 months John Kelly 2 months Mary Walshe 6 months Mary Jo Colohan 4 months Florence Conneely 7 months Norah McCann 1 months Mary Kelly 9 months Rose O’Dowd 6 months Mary Egan 4 months Michael Concannon 4 months Paul Joyce 10 months Mary Christina Kennedy 4 months Bridget Finnegan 2 months Mary Flaherty 3 months Thomas McDonagh 4 months Joseph Hoey 1 year Sheila Tuohy 9 years Teresa Cunniffe 3 months Joseph Clohessy 2 months Mary Kiely 4 months Thomas Cloran 6 months Mary Burke 3 months Mary Marg Flaherty 4 months John Keane 17 days Luke Ward 15 months Mary O’Reilly 5 months

1935

Ellen Mountgomery 18 months Mary Elizabeth Lydon 4 months Brigid Madden 1 month Mary Margaret Murphy 4 months Mary Nealon 7 months Stephen Linnane 4 months Josephine Walsh 1 years Kate Cunningham 2 months Mary Bernadet Hibbett 1 month Thomas Linnane 4 months Patrick Lane 3 months Mary Anne Conway 2 months James Kane 8 months Christopher Leech 3 months Elizabeth Ann McCann 5 months Margaret Mary Coen 2 months Michael Linnane 15months Bridget Glenane 5 weeks

1936

John O’Toole 7 months John Creshal 4 months Mary Teresa Egan 3 months Michael Boyle 3 months Anthony Mannion 6 weeks Donald Dowd 5 months Peter Ridge 4 months Eileen Collins 2 months Mary Brennan 2 months James Fahy 5 months Mary Bridget Larkin 8 months Margaret Scanlon 3 years Brian O’Malley 4 months Michael Madden 6 months

1937

Mary Kate Cahill 2 weeks Mary Margaret Lydon 3 months Festus Sullivan 1 month Annie Curley 3 weeks Nuala Lydon 5 months Bridget Collins 5 weeks Patrick Joseph Coleman 1 month Joseph Hannon 6 weeks Henry Monaghan 3 weeks Michael Joseph Shiels 7 weeks Martin Sheridan 5 weeks John Patrick Loftus 10 months Patrick Joseph Murphy 3 months Catherine McHugh 4 months Mary Patricia Toher 4 months Mary Kate Sheridan 4 months Mary Flaherty 19 months Mary Anne Walsh 14 months Eileen Quinn 2 years Patrick Burke 9 months Margaret Holland 2 days Joseph Langan 6 months Sabina Pauline O’Grady 6 months Patrick Qualter 3 years Mary King 5 months Eileen Conry 1 year

1938

Mary Nee 4 months Martin Andrew Larkin 14 months Mary Keane 3 weeks Kathleen V Cuffe 6 months Margaret Linnane 4 months Teresa Heneghan 3 months John Neary 7 months Patrick Madden 4 months Mary Cafferty 2 months Mary Kate Keane 3 months Patrick Hynes 3 weeks Annie Solan 2 months Charles Lydon 9 months Margaret Mullins 7 months Mary Mulligan 2 months Anthony Lally 5 months Joseph Spelman 6 weeks Annie Begley 3 months Vincent Egan 1 week Nora Murphy 5 months Patrick Garvey 6 months Patricia Burke 4 months Winifred Barret 2 years Agnes Marron 3 months Christopher Kennedy 5 months Patrick Harrington 1 week

1939

Kathleen Devine 2 years Vincent Garaghan 1 month Ellen Gibbons 6 months Michael McGrath 4 months Edward Fraser 3 months Bridget Lally 1 year Patrick McLoughlin 5 months Martin Healy 4 months Nora Duffy 3 months Margaret Higgins 1 week Patrick Egan 6 months Vincent Farragher 11 months Patrick Joseph Jordan 3 months Michael Hanley 1 month Catherine Gilmore 3 months Baby Carney 1 day Annie Coyne 3 months Helena Cosgrave 5 months Thomas Walsh 2 months Baby Walsh 1 day Kathleen Hession 4 months Brigid Hurley 11 months Ellen Beegan 2 months Mary Keogh 1 year Bridget Burke 3 months

1940

Martin Reilly 9 months Martin Hughes 11 months Mary Connolly 1 month Mary Kate Ruane 1 month Joseph Mulchrone 3 months Michael Williams 14 months Martin Moran 7 weeks Josephine Mahony 2 months James Henry 5 weeks Bridget Staunton 5 months John Creaven 2 weeks Peter Lydon 6 weeks Patrick Joseph Ruane 4 months Michael Quinn 8 months Julia Coen 1 week Annie McAndrew 5 months John Walsh 3 months Patrick Flaherty 6 months Bernadette Purcell 2 years Joseph Macklin 1 day Thomas Duffy 2 days Elizabeth Fahy 4 months James Kelly 2 months Nora Gallagher 4 months Kathleen Cannon 4 months Winifred Tighe 8 months Christopher Williams 1 year Joseph Lynch 1 year Andrew McHugh 15 months William Glennan 18 months Michael J Kelly 5 months Patrick Gallagher 3 months Michael Gerard Keane 2 months Ellen Lawless 6 months

1941

Mary Finn 3 months Martin Timlin 3 months Mary McLoughlin 1 month Mary Brennan 5 months Patrick Dominic Egan 1 month Nora Thornton 17 months Anne Joyce 1 year Catherine Kelly 10 months Michael Monaghan 8 months Simon John Hargraves 6 months Baby Forde 1 day Joseph Byrne 2 months Patrick Hegarty 4 months Patrick Corcoran 1 month James Leonard 16 days Jane Gormley 22 days Anne Ruane 11 days Patrick Munnelly 3 months John Lavelle 6 weeks Patrick Ruane 24 days Patrick Joseph Quinn 3 months Joseph Kennelly 15 days Kathleen Monaghan 3 months Baby Quinn 2 days Anthony Roche 4 months Annie Roughneen 3 weeks Anne Kate O’Hara 4 months Patrick Joseph Nevin 3 months John Joseph Hopkins 3 months Thomas Gibbons 1 month Winifred McTigue 7 months Thomas Joseph Begley 2 months

1942

Kathleen Heneghan 25 days Elizabeth Murphy 4 months Nora Farnan 1 month Teresa Tarpey 1 month Margaret Carey 11 months John Garvey 6 weeks Bridget Goldrick 4 months Bridget White 3 months Noel Slattery 1 month Mary T Connaughton 4 months Nora McCormack 6 weeks Joseph Hefferon 5 months Mary Higgins 9 days Mary Farrell 21 days Mary McDonnell 1 month Geraldine Cunniffe 11 weeks Michael Mannion 3 months Bridget McHugh 7 months Mary McEvady 18 months Helena Walsh 3 months William McDoell 2 days Michael Finn 14 months Mary Murphy 10 months Gertrude Glynn 6 months Joseph Flaherty 7 weeks Mary O’Malley 4 years John P Callanan 13 days Baby McDonnell 1 day Female McDonnell 1 day Christopher Burke 9 months Stephen Connolly 8 months Mary Atkinson 6 months Mary Anne Finegan 7 weeks Francis Richardson 15 months Michael John Rice 6 months Nora Carr 4 months William Walsh 16 months Vincent Cunnane 14 months Eileen Coady 10 months Female Roache 1 day Male Roache 1 day Patrick Flannery 2 months John Dermody 3 months Margaret Spellman 4 months Austin Nally 3 months Margaret Dolan 3 months Vincent Finn 9 months Bridget Grogan 6 months

1943

Thomas Patrick Cloran 9 weeks Catherine Devere 1 month Mary Josephine Glynn 1 day Annie Connolly 9 months Martin Cosgrove 7 weeks Catherine Cunningham 2 years Bridget Hardiman 2 months Mary Grier 5 months Mary P McCormick 2 months Brendan Muldoon 5 weeks Nora Moran 7 months Joseph Maher 20 days Teresa Dooley 3 months Daniel Tully 7 months Brendan Durkan 1 month Sheila O’Connor 3 months Annie Coen 6 months Patrick J Kennedy 6 days Thomas Walsh 2 months Patrick Rice 1 year Edward McGowan 10 months Brendan Egan 10 months Margaret McDonagh 1 month Annie J Donellan 10 months Thomas Walsh 14 days Bridget Quinn 6 months Mary Mulkerins 5 weeks Kathleen Parkinson 10 months Sheila Madeline Flynn 4 months Patrick Joseph Maloney 2 months Bridget Carney 7 months Mary M O’Connor 6 months Joseph Geraghty 3 months Annie Coen 10 months Martin Joseph Feeney 4 months Anthony Finnegan 3 months Patrick Coady 3 months Baby Cunningham 1 day Annie Fahy 3 months Baby Byrne 1 day Patrick Mullaney 18 months Thomas Connelly 3 months Mary Larkin 2 months Margaret Kelly 4 months Barbara McDonagh 4 months Mary O’Brien 4 months Keiran Hennelly 14 months Annie Folan 4 months Baby McNamara 1 day Julia Murphy 3 months

1944

John Rockford 4 months Vincent Geraghty 1 year Male O’Brien 2 days Anthony Deane 2 days Mary Teresa O’Brien 15 days John Connelly 3 months Bridget Murphy 3 months Patricia Dunne 2 months Francis Kinahan 1 month Joseph Sweeney 20 days Josephine O’Hagan 6 months Patrick Lavin 1 month Annie Maria Glynn 13 months Kate Agnes Moore 2 months Kevin Kearns 15 months Thomas Doocey 15 months William Conneely 8 months Margaret Spelman 16 months Mary Kate Cullen 22 months Kathleen Brown 3 years Julia Kelly 19 months Mary Connolly 7 years Catherine Harrison 2 years Eileen Forde 21 months Michael Monaghan 2 years Mary Frances Lenihan 3 days Anthony Byrne 6 months Jarlath Thornton 7 weeks John Kelly 6 days Joseph O’Brien 18 months Anthony Hyland 3 months Male Murray 1 day Female Murray 1 day Joseph F McDonnell 11 days Mary Walsh 15 months Baby Glynn 1 day James Gaughan 14 months Margaret Walsh 4 months Mary P Moran 9 days John Francis Malone 7 days

1945

Michael F Dempsey 7 weeks Christina M Greally 4 months Teresa Donnellan 1 month Rose Anne King 5 weeks Christopher J Joyce 2 months James Mannion 8 months Mary T Sullivan 3 weeks Patrick Holohan 11 months Michael Joseph Keane 1 month Bridget Keaney 2 months Joseph Flaherty 8 days Baby Mahady 3 days James Rogers 10 days Kathleen F Taylor 9 months Gerard C Hogan 7 months Kathleen Corrigan 2 months Mary Connolly 3 months Patrick J Farrell 5 months Patrick Laffey 3 years Fabian Hynes 8 months John Joseph Grehan 2 years Edward O’Malley 3 months Mary Fleming 6 months Bridget F McHugh 3 months Michael Folan 18 months Oliver Holland 6 months Ellen Nevin 7 months Margaret Horan 6 months Peter Mullarky 4 months Mary P O’Brien 4 months Teresa Francis O’Brien 4 months Mary Kennedy 18 months Sarah Ann Carroll 4 months Baby Maye 5 days

1946

Mary Devaney 21 days Anthony McDonnell 6 months Vincent Molloy 7 days John Patrick Lyons 5 months Gerald Aidan Timlin 3 days Patrick Costelloe 17 days John Francis O’Grady 1 month Bridget Mary Flaherty 12 days Josephine Finnegan 20 months Martin McGrath 3 days Baby Haugh 1 day James Frayne 1 month Mary Frances Crealy 14 days Mary Davey 2 months Patrick Joseph Hoban 11 days Angela Dolan 3 months Mary Lyden 5 months Bridget Coneely 4 months Austin O’Toole 4 months Bernard Laffey 5 months Mary Ellen Waldron 8 months Terence O’Boyle 3 months Mary Frances O’Hara 1 month Martin Dermott Henry 43 days Mary Devaney 3 months Bridget Foley 6 months Martin Kilkelly 40 days Theresa Monica Hehir 6 weeks Patrick A Mitchell 3 months John Kearney 5 months John Joseph Kelly 3 months John Conneely 4 months Stephen L O’Toole 2 months Thomas A Buckley 5 weeks Michael John Gilmore 3 months Patrick J Monaghan 3 months Mary Teresa Murray 2 months Patrick McKeighe 2 months John Raymond Feeney 3 months Finbar Noone 2 months John O’Brien 21 days Beatrice Keane 5 years Mary P Veale 5 weeks Winifred Gillespie 1 year Anthony Coen 10 weeks Michael F Sheridan 3 months Anne Holden 3 months Martin Joseph O’Brien 7 weeks Winifred Larkin 1 month

1947

Patrick Thomas Coen 1 month Mary Bridget Joyce 8 months Geraldine Collins 13 months Mary Flaherty 5 days Vincent Keogh 5 months John Francis Healy 10 days Martin J Kennelly 1 month Patrick Keaveney 2 months Philomena Flynn 2 months William Reilly 9 months Margaret N Concannon 1 year Patrick J Fitzpatrick 14days Joseph Cunningham 2 months Mary J Flaherty 13 months Kathleen Murray 3 years John O’Connell 2 years Alphonsus Hanley 21 months Bridget P Muldoon 11 months Patricia C Higgins 5 months Catherine B Kennedy 2 months John Desmond Dolan 15 months Stephen Joynt 2 years Catherine T Kearns 2 years Margaret Hurney 2 years John Patton 2 years Patrick J Williams 15 months Nora Hynes 8 months Anthony Donohue 2 years Brendan McGreal 1 year Anthony Cafferky 23 days Nora Cullinane 18 months Kathleen Daly 2 years Nora Conneely 15 months Mary Teresa Joyce 13 months Kenneth A Ellesmere 1 day Mary P Carroll 4 months Thomas Collins 17 months Margaret M Moloney 3 months Josephine Tierney 8 months Margaret M Deasy 3 months Martin Francis Bane 3 months Bridget Agatha Kenny 2 months Baby Kelly 1 day Mary Teresa Judge 15 months Paul Dominick Bennett 3 months Mary Bridget Giblin 18 months

1948

Kathleen Madden 2 months Mary P Byrne 8 weeks Joseph Byrce 4 months Joseph Byrne 11 months Kathleen Glynn 4 months Augustine Jordan 9 months Michael F Dwyer 18 months Noel C Murphy 14 months Margaret McNamee 6 months Patrick Grealish 6 weeks Bernadette O’Reilly 7 months John Joseph Carr 3 weeks Paul Gardiner 10 months Simon Thomas Folan 9 weeks Joseph Ferguson 3 months Peter Heffernan 4 months Patrick J Killeen 14 weeks Stephen Halloran 7 months Teresa Grealish 5 months John Keane 4 months Mary Burke 9 months Brigid McTigue 3 months Margaret R Broderick 8 months Martin Mannion 3 months 1949

Mary Margaret Riddell 8 months Thomas J Noonan 7 weeks Peter Casey 10 months Michael Scully 3 months Baby Lyons 5 days Hubert McLoughlin 4 months Mary M Finnegan 3 months Nicholas P Morley 3 months Teresa Bane 6 months Patrick J Kennedy 5 weeks Michael Francis Ryan 3 days John Forde 2 years Mary P Cunnane 3 months Margaret P Sheridan 4 months Patrick Joseph Nevin 3 months Joseph Nally 5 months Christopher Burke 3 months Anne Madden 7 weeks Bridget T Madden 7 weeks Thomas Murphy 3 months Francis Carroll 2 months Bridget J Linnan 9 months Josephine Staunton 8 days Mary Ellen McKeigue 7 weeks

1950

Mary J Mulchrone 3 months Catherine Higgins 4 years Catherine Anne Egan 3 months Thomas McQuaid 4 months Dermott Muldoo 4 months Martin Hanley 9 weeks John Joseph Lally 3 months Brendan Larkin 5 months Baby Bell 1 day Mary J Larkin 7 months Annie Fleming 9 months Colm A McNulty 1 month Walter Flaherty 3 months Sarah Burke 15 days Mary Ann Boyle 5 months John Anthony Murphy 5 months Joseph A Colohan 4 months Christopher Begley 18 days

1951

Catherine A Meehan 4 months Martin McLynskey 6 months Mary J Crehan 3 months Mary Ann McDonagh 2 months Joseph Folan 22 days Evelyn Barrett 4 months Paul Morris 4 months Peter Morris 4 months Mary Martyna Joyce 18 months Mary Margaret Lane 7 months

1952

John Noone 4 months Anne J McDonnell 6 months Joseph Anthony Burke 6 months Patrick Hardiman 6 months Patrick Naughton 12 days Josephine T Staunton 21 days John Joseph Mills 5 months

1953

Baby Hastings 1 day Mary Donlon 4 months Nora Connolly 15 months

1954

Anne Heneghan 3 months Mary Keville 9 months Martin Murphy 5 months Mary Barbara Murphy 5 months Mary P Logue 5 months Margaret E Cooke 6 months Mary Ann Broderick 14 months Ann Marian Fahy 4 months Anne Dillon 4 months Imelda Halloran 2 years

1955

Joseph Gavin 10 months Marian Brigid Mulryan 10 months Mary C Rafferty 3 months Nora Mary Howard 4 months Joseph Dempsey 3 months Patrick Walsh 3 weeks Francis M Heaney 3 years

1956

Dermot Gavin 2 weeks Mary C Burke 3 years Patrick Burke 1 year Paul Henry Nee 5 months Oliver Reilly 4 months Gerard Connaughton 11 months Rose Marie Murphy 2 years

1957

Margaret Connaire 4 months Stephen Noel Browne 2 years Baby Fallon 4 days

1958

Geraldine O’Malley 6 months

1959

Dolores Conneely 7 months Mary Maloney 4 months

1960

Mary Carty 5 months

[topbeautifulwomens]

#Richard #Burgi #family #jewelry #makeuplooks #modelo #motivation #naturephotography #rap #singer #viral #youtube

ICHARD was born on July 30, 1958 in Montclair, New Jersey. He is married to Lori Kahn, and they have two sons, Jack and Samuel.

For Richard, a strong interest in music and theater is in his blood. His parents and three siblings were interested in the performing arts and the Burgi home was a fertile environment.

Richard recalls, “…my brother and I had a detective agency when we were kids. We were really enamuch mored with these kids’ novels, the Brains Benton series. They’re rather obscure. They were, I guess, a thinking boys’ alternative to the Hardy Boys. Not that the Hardy Boys were idiots. But, I mean, these were really wildly constructed stories that these two junior detectives went through. So he and I had fashioned ourselves after Brains Benton and his partner, and had a laboratory and all these Erlenmeyer flasks – beakers and condensers. And we’d make this and boil that. And we had gunpowder, and we’d light fires in the basement. And it was total insanity. But the final straw, as far as my parents were concerned, was when… well, the house caught on fire one day. It got messy. So we had to retire early.”

After finishing school, Richard traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe. Though a career in acting was always one of Richard’s goals, it took a while for the goal to become a reality.

He finally ended up in New York City and began studying acting and gaining acting experience with commercials and cameos, which led to regular roles on several daytime dramas.

When Richard left Days of Our Lives, the co-executive producer said “Richard has such amazing timing, whether dramatic or comedic.”

A move to Los Angeles allowed him to read for different types of roles. A recurring role as Lane Cassidy in Viper led to a lead role in One West Waikiki with Cheryl Ladd.

His character, Mack Wolfe, was a man fighting demons, struggling to become a hero. “I think it was organic in that way to take him in that direction, because I think to watch people struggle through their dark ingredients is appealing. Going through it and out and up into a joyful, winning, positive, light area is appealing… and the possibility of sliding back.”

As Jim Ellison in The Sentinel, Richard played “a champion of the light, of the good, that’s where he is, that’s where I am in some way.”

Richard has been keeping busy since The Sentinel ceased production in 1998, beginning with a guest spot on the popular CBS drama Touched By An Angel as well as appearing on E! Entertainment TV’s Celebrity Homes feature. His character in the pilot of the short-lived 1999 FOX comedy, Action — action movie star Cole Riccardi — came back for a second appearance in the show’s controversial fourth episode, “Blowhard.” Richard guested on a 1999-2000 season episode of NBC’s comedy Veronica’s Closet as Veronica’s new beau Mark, as well as an episode of the popular NBC drama Providence as Dr. J.D. Scanlon. He also filmed a Fall 2000 episode of NBC’s Just Shoot Me, appearing as action hero Robert “The Nomad” Gallatin, and joined the recurring cast of the hit CBS drama, The District, in the role of Captain Vincent Hunter. He also appeared as the ill-fated Paul Donovan in the March 18th, 2001 ABC/Wonderful World of Disney feature “Bailey’s Mistake,” opposite Linda Hamilton .

Fall 2001 located Richard in the new FOX drama, 24, playing the part of Alan York/Kevin Carroll in the Golden Globe-winning drama’s first season. In addition to filming his eleven-episode story arc on 24, Richard entired filming the new “indie” feature film, “Wheelmen,” playing former hotshot ambulance driver, Nick Torino. “Wheelmen” is currently awaiting a distributor. Richard joined the recurring cast of the CBS drama Judging Amy in Spring 2002, playing the part of Judge Amy (Amy Brenneman) Gray’s ex-husband, Michael Cassidy. He spent most of May and June with the Matrix Theatre Company’s production of the Neil Landau-written “Johnny On The Spot,” playing dual roles, Fred and Sy. After appearing at the 42nd Monte Carlo Television Festival (July 1-6) in Monaco, Richard rejoined his “Johnny On The Spot” castmates for the July 20th Los Angeles finale.

Richard brought in Fall 2002 with an appearance in the season premiere of Judging Amy, once again in the role of Amy’s ex-husband, Michael. Head writer Barbara Hall revealed that the custody dispute between Michael and Amy would be a continuing theme throughout the season, which proved to be the case with three of his four episodes: “Lost in the System,” “People of the Lie,” and “The Best Interests of the Child” all dealt with and finally resolved the custody issue, while the most recent — “Marry, Marry Quite Contrary” — showed Michael and Amy as friends who still care for each other. In addition to his continuing association with Judging Amy, Richard returned to CBS’s The District in two episodes, appearing once more as Captain Hunter in “The Second Man” and “Good-bye, Jenny.” He has also filmed an episode of the “most watched” CBS show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, playing paragliding instructor Rick Weston in “High and Low,” which aired December 12th. Richard closed out 2002 playing Lieutenant Womack in “The Message,” one of the final episodes of the FOX network’s Firefly, a sci-fi series from Joss Whedon, producer of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Though FOX decided to cancel Firefly before airing all of the contracted episodes, the show was temporarily snatched up by the syndication market; “The Message” aired on the UK Sci Fi Channel in July 2003.

Richard ushered in 2003 with his most recent episodes of Judging Amy and The District, and worked with producer Chris Thompson (Action) on a new pilot for the WB Network. The new show, a comedy titled Trash, was described as “Romeo and Juliet set in a trailer park,” with Richard playing Bud Blue, father of teenager Luna — the show’s Juliet. Unfortunately, Trash was not picked up by the WB for the Fall season.

In addition to his television work, Richard spent part of March and April in Ottawa, Canada, where he joined the cast of the Matt Hastings-directed “Decoys” as Detective Francis Kirk. Hastings described the movie as “‘American Pie’ meets ‘Species'” — a tongue-in-cheek sci-fi thriller set on a college campus. Next up was the long-awaited sequel to “Starship Troopers,” titled “Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation,” from producer Jon Davison, director Phil Tippett, and writer Ed Neumeier. Richard leads the cast as the “hero” mentioned in the title — a tough trooper named Captain V.J. Dax. Principal photography ran from May 14th through June 20th. The film premiered on the Encore Action Channel, part of the Starz! group of Cable channels, on April 24th, 2004, with DVD release starting in May.

Richard enjoyed a brief flirtation with summer vacation, but was at work on “Jack’s Back,” the Fall 2003 season premiere episode of The District by mid-July, after which he headed to Sofia, Bulgaria to shoot “Darklight,” a sci-fi thriller designed by UFO Films for the Sci Fi Channel’s 2004-05 roster of original features. The “Darklight” shoot ran from July 28th through August 20th. The last quarter of 2003 proved to be just as busy, with additional episodes of The District as well as a role in “Cellular,” a thriller from New Line Cinema starring Kim Basinger, William. H. Macy, Chris Evans and Jason Statham. Richard played Craig Martin, husband of Basinger’s character Jessica. Cellular premiered in theaters on September 10th ’04.

February 2004 found Richard once again at work on a major feature film — “In Her Shoes” from Fox 2000 and 20th Century Fox. The dramatic comedy stars Cameron Diaz (Maggie), Toni Collette (Rose), and Shirley MacLaine (Ella), with Richard playing the part of Rose’s love ’em and leave ’em cad of a boyfriend, Jim Danvers. The film is expected to premiere in 2005.

While waiting to film his remaining scenes for “In Her Shoes,” Richard worked on Point Pleasant, the pilot for a new “superall-natural” dramatic series. From producer Marti Noxon of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fame, and 20th Century Fox Television, Point Pleasant has been described as “a kinder, gentler ‘Rosemary’s Baby,'” and “a cross between Peyton Place and ‘The Omen.'” Richard plays Dr. Ben Kramer, a fortysomething husband and father whose family takes in the show’s lead character, a mysterious young girl who washes up on the beach one day.

Point Pleasant was given a 12-episode order (13 including the pilot, portions of which have been re-shot) in late August ’04 and went into production in San Diego in November. FOX launched the show on January 19th and 20th at 9:00pm as a two-part premiere, with 9:00pm Thursday becoming its official timeslot following The O.C.

May 2004 found Richard in New Orleans working on a film for Lifetime Television titled “Torn Apart.” The thriller stars Tia Carrere as Vicki Westin, Dale Midkiff as Jerry Bender, and Richard Burgi as Billy Westin, and premiered in late September ’04. Tia Carrere plays a doctor whose husband (Burgi) and daughter are kidnapped by a man (Midkiff) whose wife and daughter Dr. Vicki Westin couldn’t save. Instead of a ransom, Jerry Bender demands that Vicki decide on whether her husband or daughter will die.

Richard brought in Fall 2004 with a guest role on the new ABC series Desperate Housewives, where he played Karl Mayer, the philandering ex-husband of series star Teri Hatcher’s Susan Mayer. Next came a five-week shoot on the new Jim Carrey comedy, “Fun with Dick and Jane.” The film, a remake of the 1977 original starring Jane Fonda and George Segal, stars Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni as Dick and Jane Harper. The Harpers are a young couple who turn to a life of crime to pay the bills after Dick loses his job. Richard plays a new character, Joe Kleman (we’re uncertain of the exact surname spelling). The movie is slated for a June 2005 release in the USA.

The last quarter of 2004 saw Richard working on a second episode of ABC’s breakout hit, Desperate Housewives, before starting production on his new FOX series, Point Pleasant. The episode of Desperate Housewives, “Move On,” premiered just over a week before Point Pleasant launched on FOX. Richard also filmed an episode of ABC’s midseason drama Eyes sometime in late 2004, roughly concurrent with his work on Desperate Housewives. The Eyes role was intended as a recurring character, but Richard’s commitment to Point Pleasant prevented his continued involvement with the show.

The first quarter of 2005 found Richard still hard at work on Point Pleasant. Though FOX decided to cancel the show in late March with five episodes unaired, 20th Century Fox kept the show in production and finished all thirteen episodes. With the complete season available for broadcast, Point Pleasant aired in a variety of international markets. FOX later released a Complete Series DVD boxed set, as was done with Firefly. Late March found Richard being featured in launch promos for ABC’s Eyes, which premiered on March 30th. (Sadly, ABC pulled the show before Richard’s episode could be aired).

The second quarter of 2005 saw Richard finishing the last episodes of Point Pleasant in mid April and, roughly a week later, returning to Wisteria Lane and Desperate Housewives, where he took part in the season finale episode, “One Wonderful Day.” As it turned out, the finale appearance also served to reintroduce the character to viewers — by July, Richard would be confirmed as a series regular for Fall 2005. Richard started a six week feature film shoot in Shanghai, China in mid-June, where he worked on “Shanghai Red,” a joint venture between MAR de ORO Films and Shanghai Film Studios. Richard costars with Vivian Wu, whose husband Oscar L. Costo is the writer, director, and producer of the film. Richard plays an expatriate American named Michael Johnson. As described for us by Oscar Costo, “‘Shanghai Red’ is a dramatic film about the journey of a young, modern Shanghai mother Meili Zhu (Vivian Wu) who suffers the loss of her husband and how she comes to terms with her state of depression. In her murderous journey of revenge, Meili meets Michael Johnson (Richard Burgi), an expatriate American from Chicago escaping his own dark past. Even though Michael’s motives for being with Meili are originally laced with deception, he ultimately finds hope, love and honor through her.”

Late July 2005 found Richard home from China and once again at work on Desperate Housewives, this time as a series regular. As suspected, Karl spent the Fall 2005 season stirring up trouble on Wisteria Lane by becoming romantically involved with neighborhood vamp, Edie Britt (Nicollette Sheridan) while still pining after ex-wife Susan (Teri Hatcher). By the end of the season, Karl had secretly remarried Susan to provide her with medical insurance coverage while still stringing Edie along with a sham engagement. He had also been hired by Bree (Marcia Cross) to serve as her lawyer in her son Andrew’s emancipation case. Richard’s work as Karl was often mentioned in the press as a highlight of the season. Sadly, a reorganization of the Desperate Housewives production and writing staff led to a reprioritizing of storylines for the Fall 2006 season, which led to Karl being sidelined and essentially excised from the ongoing saga.

While waiting for news of his fate on Desperate Housewives, Richard spent the summer of 2006 working on movies and making public appearances. “Firestorm: Last Stand at Yellowstone,” a telemovie for A&E, was filmed in May in British Columbia, Canada. After a quick June trip to Rhode Island and the Newport International Film Festival, Richard was once again in Canada — Ontario, this time — to work on “In God’s Country” for CTV and Lifetime TV. August found Richard at the All*Star Cup charity golf tournament in Newport, Wales, and by October, he was hard at work in Prague, Czech Republic, on “Hostel: Part II,” the sequel to Eli Roth’s horror blockbuster “Hostel.” In addition to “Hostel: Part II,” Richard filmed a short scene for a Sweeps episode of Desperate Housewives, “Children and Art,” which has been his last appearance on the show to date.

2007 found Richard working on a mix of television guest spots and movies, beginning with three back-to-back episodes of NBC’s Las Vegas, which were filmed in January and aired in late February and March. A fourth Las Vegas episode — the conclusion of the previous season’s cliff-hanger finale — was filmed in May, after which Richard was once more Canada-bound for another movie role. “Thomas Kinkade’s Home for Christmas,” scheduled for a Christmas 2008 release, found Richard playing Bill Kinkade, father of famous American painter Thomas Kinkade. Richard filmed an episode of the CBS legal drama Shark in July, playing an unscrupulous plastic surgeon. The episode, “Eye of the Beholder,” aired October 7th.

Richard’s last role before the WGA (Writers Guild of America) strike effectively shut down television production for the rest of the year was in ABC’s Big Shots, playing billionaire adrenaline junkie Gavin Carter. The episode, “The Way We Weren’t,” aired November 29th.

Thus far, 2008 has gotten off to a slow start for Richard, due largely to the strike-related industry shutdown. He filmed a commercial for the 2008 Cadillac DTS DeVille Touring Sedan in mid-January which, as of mid-February, has yet to premiere. Now that the WGA strike has been resolved and television production resumed, Richard and his peers should soon be back at work.

Right now, Richard cherishes his time with his family. Marriage and fatherhood agree with him; in fact, they “changed my life around,” he says. “I’m more in love than I’ve ever been. I can’t imagine anything that surpasses this.”

Time with family dovetails beautifully with Richard’s other loves — music, surfing, nature and bird-watching. Richard is the proud owner of a vintage Buddy Miles drum-set and enjoys playing it whenever possible; during a Spring 1999 appearance on Access Hollywood, he revealed that get-togethers in the Burgi household often turn into impromptu concerts, with adults grabbing instruments and children singing along.

An enthusiastic surfer and nature lover, Richard spends as much time outdoors as possible, either at the beach or hiking through the hills with his family. Introducing his sons to the natural world is an added pleasure. He feels a strong connection to nature and is an advocate of environmental protection and preservation.

Richard was involved for a time with the Yellowstone Ecological Survey,an organization devoted to educating the public on the delicate Yellowstone ecosystem. The Bozeman, Montana-based organization is best known for its part in the reintroduction of wolves to the Yellowstone ecosystem. Richard now supports the work of the Surfrider Foundation, a San Clemente, CA – based organization which works to protect and preserve shoreline and coastal environments. “Life comes and goes, and I think we require to save our planet and not hurt it,” he explains. “I like to be proactive, but at the same time I like to work in a grass roots way and impact my environment as best I can.”

Richard is also an avid bird-watcher, an interest he discovered as a ten-year-old. Sharp-eyed viewers of The Sentinel may have noticed a variety of bird-watching books and framed bird prints scattered throughout Ellison’s Loft; many, if not all, belong to Richard or were selected by him. Perhaps the most noticeable is a National Audubon Society print on the wall of Jim’s bedroom.

Richard’s interest in and commitment to preserving the environment for future generations, his preference for “grass roots” work, and his passion for and devotion to the sea and the marine mammals common to the waters of his California home led him to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, a Laguna Beach, CA – based, volunteer-run and funded organization which tends to the needs of sick or injured seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals. The RBFC is delighted to join Richard in his support of and interest in the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

Name Richard Burgi Height 6' 1½” Naionality American Date of Birth 30 July 1958 Place of Birth Montclair, New Jersey, USA Famous for

The post Richard Burgi Biography Photographs Wallpapers appeared first on Beautiful Women.

source http://topbeautifulwomen.com/richard-burgi-biography-photographs-wallpapers/

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Untitled by Cassidy Scanlon

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Cassidy Scanlon

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4 Christmas Traditions that are Actually Pagan

Christmas is an iconic holiday, designated by decorous evergreens, a golly old white man in a red suit and cap, reindeer pulling sleds, and the Christian nativity scene. Those of us who celebrate it go through the motions of upholding the aesthetic: twinkling lights, nutcrackers, angels, and stockings hung on the mantle.

But where do these traditions come from? And why are they so closely associated with Christianity?

Many Christian and Catholic traditions reflect a blend of the various cultures that existed as the religion developed into an institution. Pagans, or polytheistic communities, worshipped multiple gods and goddesses and honored them throughout the year with celebrations, feasts, and rituals. As Christian influence spread throughout Europe, the Church sought to incorporate elements of paganism for the sake of converting them.

Christmas is no exception. The widely-celebrated holiday that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ is more closely aligned with pagan festivals for the Winter Solstice. Some historians believe that Jesus Christ wasn’t born on Christmas, but was incorporated into pagan traditions to encourage polytheistic people to convert.

Throughout cultures and religions, Winter Solstice celebrations honored the Sun and its return, bringing some light to the darkest day of the year. It’s a time of hope, rejuvenation, and new beginnings.

Roman pagans honored Saturn, God of Time, to honor the New Year. Pre-Christian Scandinavians celebrated Jol, a festival that involved eating boar, burning large logs, and celebrating goats. Celtic mythology recounts the battle of the Oak King, who represents light, and the Holly King, who symbolizes night.

The holiday traditions we celebrate today take on a new meaning when considering the pagan context they were created in. Here are four Christmas traditions that were inspired by pre-Christian pagan communities.

Christmas Tree

Referred to as a Yule tree by Germanic pagans, evergreens were cut down and brought inside the home to symbolize eternal life. Since their vibrant green color never faded, these trees were believed to discourage the onset of death, destruction, and evil spirits. Their resilience in the coldest months of the year reflected the belief that they encouraged the return of the Sun. Along with the tree, evergreen branches were often hung throughout the house or crafted into wreaths to harness their protective powers and symbolize everlasting life.

Our modern tradition of decorating Christmas trees with lights, holly, tinsel, and ornaments mirrors the pagan custom of ceremoniously honoring evergreens. Roman pagans believed that keeping trees in the homes would provide a place for wood spirits to be warm. They’d hang delicious food and sweets on the branches for their mystic guests to eat.

Father Christmas

The symbol of Santa Claus in modern times is a combination of pagan traditions and early Christian figures. His name and good-nature are most closely linked with St. Nicholas, a Greek bishop who lived in Turkey during the 3rd and 4th centuries. He was an early Christian who defended his community from religious persecution and was imprisoned until Constantine declared Christianity the Roman Empire’s primary religion.

Germanic pagans believed that the god Odin embarked on a hunt during Yule. He led the party through the sky with a horse named Sleipnir who had eight legs. This mythic creature is speculated to pre-date reindeer because of it’s ability to jump long distances. It was customary for children to put out food for the horse in their boots, which Odin would thank them for by giving them small gifts.

Christmas Caroling

During Saturnalia, the week-long Roman celebration for Saturn, boisterous groups of people would meander throughout town carousing, but naked. That last part didn’t seem to carry over into modern times, but the tradition of merry-making through singing did.

In other cultures, however, this tradition was specifically performed by children who would go door to door and sing for their neighbors and fellow villagers. They were gifted with gifts, food, or small tokens of appreciation for their effort.

Hanging Mistletoe and Holly

Druids used both mistletoe and holly in ceremonies performed during the Winter Solstice. Holly was believed to embody “masculine” energy and was most often used to ward off evil spirits from entering the home. It was placed over doors, windows, and the fireplace, acting as a guard to dispel negative energy from sacred spaces.

Mistletoe was believed to symbolize divine fertility and was harvested for the purpose of wearing as an amulet or hanging above someone’s bed to encourage conception. Like holly, the plant was also posted over doorways to secure it from threatening forces like bad weather or malevolent spirits.

Cassidy Scanlon is a Capricorn poet and witch who uses her artistic gifts as a channel for healing herself and others. She writes poetry and CNF about mental health, astrology, queer love, pop culture representation, and how social structures shape our perceptions of history and mythology. When she’s not writing, she can be found petting the local stray cats, exploring the swamps of Florida, reading 5 books at a time, and unwinding with her Leo girlfriend. 

You can visit her astrology blog Mercurial Musings and explore more of her publications on her website. 

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england57 by Cassidy Scanlon on Flickr.

𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆, 𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒆

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Cassidy Scanlon untitled

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The Wisdom of Extraction

Even if you know nothing about astrology, you might know about the Greco-Roman deities that Saturn and Pluto are named after. Saturn is modeled after Kronos, or Cronus, who was believed to be Father Time in Roman mythology. He was closely associated with agriculture and the force that propels the seasons through the cycle of life and death. It was believed he devoured his own children, which was understood as a symbolic depiction of the ruthlessness of Earth’s rhythms.

Pluto’s history isn’t exactly light-hearted either; known as the King of the Underworld, the Roman god Pluto and the Greek god Hades are often interchangeable. The etymology of their names reveals how these ancient cultures perceived their powers and personality: Hades was understood as “the invisible” while Pluto was a derivative of Pluton argued by Socrates to mean that Pluto “gives wealth.” However, he’s not referring to tangible wealth like currency, but rather the wealth of souls he harbors in the underworld. 

This year my 25th birthday coincided with the widely anticipated 2020 Saturn-Pluto conjunct, an intense union of two planets that only form this aspect approximately every 34 years. Both of these planets were in Capricorn and sat right on my Capricorn Ascendant. 

In astrology, Pluto and Saturn present hard lessons to swallow. Saturn delays and restricts in order to teach the importance of patience, limitations, and perseverance. It abhors instant gratification, preferring the reward of obtaining ambition through small steps. Pluto tends to expose and destroy, forcing people to confront the truth with startling clarity. The lesson here is that death is a necessary part of life, a process that must happen if one expects to be reborn.

Both have a sobering effect, which is heightened by the austere sign of Capricorn. The manifestations of Saturn and Pluto in this sign are intense, especially for individuals with Capricorn energy occupying important parts of their chart.

Enter their conjunct with my Capricorn rising. Exit my false sense of security, my track record of burning myself out before I even begin, and my tendency to avoid the hard work of change. My identity was not what it used to be; I felt myself growing out of my skin, shedding old habits and perspectives about who I was.

On my 25th birthday, all of this came to the forefront of my life. My lower right wisdom tooth was sticking out of my gum, angled dangerously close to my second molar. It demanded my attention and asserted that I was going to deal with it immediately. I took a deep breath and spent hours researching what I needed to do to schedule and pay for this surgery without any dental or medical insurance. It was grueling (Saturn) yet transforming (Pluto).

I never understood the value of my teeth. They’re a central part of our body, not just the mouth. Healthy teeth increase life expectancy and reduce the possibility of developing other oral health or medical problems like rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, and osteoporosis. They’re considered part of the skeletal system, despite the fact they lack tissue typically found in bones. 

Teeth make smiling, eating, and talking possible. They provide a foundation, structural integrity. I spent most of my life ignoring and abusing them. I hadn’t been to a dentist for cleaning since I was a teenager and I used to smoke cigarettes and have poor oral hygiene routines. It doesn’t help that access to dental care seems more like a luxury than a necessity. Who cares about teeth?

Only when they hurt.

Most people get their wisdom teeth removed so my experience isn’t unique. I find it ironic that humans have smaller mouths than they did before, but we haven’t evolved enough to no longer grow third molars. They come anyway, regardless if they’re needed. They aggressively assert themselves into spaces they aren’t welcomed or wanted. Their persistence is admirable.

It only makes sense that Saturn, the planet of integral structures, governs the skeletal system, the foundation for our muscles, nerves, veins, and skin. The growth of wisdom teeth is delayed until we move beyond our teenage years into adulthood. Their violent removal is a rite of passage for most people. But into what? Being older and more aware of the scam of American healthcare? Becoming more mature, more aware of the body’s limitations?

Teeth hold stories. Paleontologists study teeth to find out how animals and humans in the past lived. Plaque is still present in the mouths of people who died two hundred to five thousand years ago. Teeth are like fingerprints, unique to every individual.

When teeth are pulled up, it feels like losing part of your narrative. For me, getting mine removed was a catharsis, a final goodbye to the part of me that felt trapped by circumstance, haunted by the past. The reckless years of not caring about my health were suddenly, violently over and I needed myself more than ever. I began to understand that in my lifetime, I have just one body and I want to preserve it. 

When I was sedated by the oral surgeon, it felt like floating on the waves of my consciousness. I don’t remember thinking anything in particular, just that my thoughts stretched until they dissolved, quivered and resolved. An hour felt like five minutes, the concrete reality of time rendered meaningless.

As I slowly woke up, I remember focusing on the abstract painting in the room. It was composed of blocks of color with blurred out edges: muted reds, a hazy tan, soaring yellow. The blocks danced with my wavering vision, moving back and forth like a buoy bobbing in the ocean. 

I thought of Apollonia, the patron saint of toothaches and dentistry. I prayed to her before I went under, called out to her when my anxiety felt unbearable. In retrospect, I think of Kronos and Hades, of Saturn and Pluto watching the waxing and waning of my new consciousness. I had ventured to the Underworld in pursuit of an evolved identity, offering the bloody roots of my teeth as a token. Not done out of penance or even for blessings, but for transformation.

Cassidy Scanlon is a Capricorn poet and witch who uses her artistic gifts as a channel for healing herself and others. She writes poetry and CNF about mental health, astrology, queer love, pop culture representation, and how social structures shape our perceptions of history and mythology. When she’s not writing, she can be found petting the local stray cats, exploring the swamps of Florida, reading 5 books at a time, and unwinding with her Leo girlfriend. 

You can visit her astrology blog Mercurial Musings and explore more of her publications on her website. 

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The Gift of Healing

The first crystal I ever owned was a small transparent quartz. Unaware of its power, I kept it in a small black box in my room. I never thought of it as important, just pretty. Yet I kept it for years, harboring a subconscious desire to understand it.

The power that crystals hold eluded me until my first therapist gave me an amethyst. It was a gift to celebrate my graduation from an in-patient treatment program for eating disorders. I was 15 years old and eager to prove that I was newly transformed. 

The therapists, the nutritionist, and the other girls sat in a circle in the group therapy room. Each of the graduates played a song that represented their lives before and after treatment (my before being “Silent Undoing” by Queenadreena, my after was “Twilight Galaxy” by Metric). Then, the therapists gave their patients a stone that represented their journey. 

My therapist was an older, white lesbian woman with stringy blonde hair and blue doll eyes. Her name was Kay, and she was friendly and soft-spoken with an affinity for the word “aware.” She wore loose-fitting, business casual clothes – black pants that ballooned at the bottom, long-sleeve button-up shirts in neutral colors that she never tucked into her waistline – and Birkenstocks. During our sessions, she’d sit cross-legged in the chair, her feet bare and the sleeves of her shirt rolled up on her arms. 

Her face always wore a smile. Kay was the kind of person whose entire being illuminated when she felt her emotions. Her expressions were animated, but always calm. It was easy to trust her. When I spoke about my struggles and triumphs, she’d listen carefully, and respond with a cool slow nod.  

In process group, our weekly house therapy sessions, she’d often respond to our feelings with the phrase: “I’m very aware that you’re feeling ______.” The other girls and I adored her for it, and would often crack jokes during our free time about how aware we were of each other’s awareness.

One day, when we were lounging around the pool, the oldest girl of the house C. mentioned that Kay was a lesbian. 

“A lesbian? How do you know?” I said, wide-eyed with shock.

I have no idea how she knew this. Did she guess? Was there proof? All I can remember is some mention about the song “Pour Some Sugar On Me” by Def Leppard. As we played the song and bobbed our heads to it, Kay came outside and exclaimed: “Oh I love this song!” and started singing along.

"As a young witch, I remember being skeptical about what crystals could do for me. But I quickly learned that magic doesn’t just happen; you have to believe in it."

My young queer girl heart was confused; did music make one gay? In my case, it definitely helped me identify my sexuality later on. But in this context, before I understood the labyrinth of queer identity, all I had was a subconscious yearning to know more. Kay reflected a part of me that was deeply repressed. I remember feeling anxious and uncomfortable about her sexuality; was it internalized homophobia? Or was it because I was unwilling to recognize myself in her? I had no language to unpack this, so I simply let it slip underneath my radar.

Even as a confused and closeted young queer, Kay was the first therapist I opened up to. Before treatment, I had a negative experience with another therapist because I refused to talk about my eating disorder. I was still sick and in denial about the effects my anorexia had on my body and psyche. But with Kay, I was ready to be healed. She helped me navigate the complex causes and manifestations of my neurosis, often incorporating my love of drawing and writing into our sessions.

Once, in a weekly family therapy meeting, she interrupted one of my dad’s long-winded tangents and pointed out how much space he took up. Kay always made room for my story, despite my instinct to remain small and indistinguishable.

The day I graduated, I felt overwhelmed and anticipatory (my go-to feelings in process group) for the future. Two months had passed since my first day at the treatment facility. Despite this short amount of time, it was obvious how different I was. Not only was my physical body nourished and healthy, but my mind, heart, and spirit flowed freely through me. There was no inhibition; I was vulnerable and it felt safe.  

When Kay handed me an amethyst crystal during my graduation ceremony, I was entranced by its small size and deep purple hue. It was shaped like a trapezoid, and had white streaks emerging from the bottom. She held it out to me in her palm, telling me her reasoning for choosing this particular stone. While I can’t remember exactly what she said, I can imagine she explained to me it’s ability to center, cleanse, protect, and enhance my wisdom, creativity, and emotions. 

I took the stone from her and held it in my hand, rubbing it’s flat and curved surfaces with my fingers. It was cool to the touch, yet warm from Kay’s hand. I thought of the clear quartz I had kept for years, and got excited at the thought of adding another gem to my collection.

As a young witch, I remember being skeptical about what crystals could do for me. But I quickly learned that magic doesn’t just happen; you have to believe in it. If your intention is true, then any object you imbue with love and devotion will manifest this reality. Kay might not identify as a witch, but she was a person of magic. She taught me how to have faith in myself, before I knew that objects could channel this energy.  

Stones and crystals are often an entry point for aspiring witches. Students of the occult, curious about anything and everything mystique and taboo, gravitate towards their aesthetic beauty and magical properties. Their popularity in mainstream culture is derived from the fact they’re easily commodified. Crystals are an object, after all, and capitalism is eager to profit off of inanimate and tangible things.  

But amethysts are beyond greed and hoarding. It wasn’t until years later, after I came out as queer and began collecting other stones, that I understood the significance of amethysts. It’s a highly spiritual crystal, one that stimulates the Third Eye and Crown chakra, which represents our ability to have perspective and magical connections. Amethyst is the artist’s stone, capable of sparking the imagination and creative arts. It’s the diplomat and healer’s talisman, soothing frustration, inducing peace, and curbing overindulgence and obsessive compulsive behavior.

Now I have many different versions of amethysts – geodes, natural crystals, polished stones – yet my favorite is still the one Kay gave me. It’s small size and smooth texture draws me towards it in my rituals. It was the first stone I learned to trust, because it was from the first person I allowed to heal me.

Cassidy Scanlon is a Capricorn poet and witch who uses her artistic gifts as a channel for healing herself and others. She writes poetry and CNF about mental health, astrology, queer love, pop culture representation, and how social structures shape our perceptions of history and mythology. When she’s not writing, she can be found petting the local stray cats, exploring the swamps of Florida, reading 5 books at a time, and unwinding with her Leo girlfriend. 

You can visit her astrology blog Mercurial Musings and explore more of her publications on her website. 

[pussymagicuniverse]

Sappho and the Queer Imagination

Sappho, the infamous Greek poet whose best known for her homoerotic poetry, is a woman shrouded in mystery. Most of her poems and songs were lost throughout the centuries, and all that remains are a small collection of fragments. Historians, scholars, and readers fill in the gaps for her, placing a few pieces in a puzzle that seems to dissolve into obscurity.

Sappho’s legacy is largely in her name, as the word “sapphic” was used to describe love between women at the turn of the 20th century. Prior to that time, however, lesbian was used to described anything derived from the island (i.e. lesbian wine simply meant wine from Lesbos). We don't see the term Lesbianism until around 1870, when it was used in a medical dictionary to pathologize romantic love between women.

Queer figures in history often feel mythological. Even reading about Sappho's fragmented history, what we know about her biography is so limited that it collapses into speculation. As you can see below, Sappho's one-lined poems are numbered and joined together like the lyrical jumble of a found object poem.

The idea of the found object poem, defined as a poem comprised of parts from other texts such as journals, other poems, newspapers, novels, ect, reflects the historical lesbian consciousness. What do we have save scrapes of biography and medicalized journals detailing queer abnormality? 

Due to the historical inaccessibility of language and writing (Sappho was an upper-class woman who had access to education), our accounts of queerness are not only far and few but often limited to people of wealth and status.

The new HBO period drama, Gentleman Jack, is inspired by the coded journals of Anne Lister, a wealthy land-owning lesbian who lived in 19th century England. Lister is important in lesbian history because she wrote explicitly about the sexual encounters she had with women, exemplified by the excerpt below.

In Emily Nussbaum's essay "Chick Magnets on “Gentleman Jack” and “Killing Eve,”" she writes: "Lister was a gender-disrupting trailblazer, who recorded experiences that society refused to admit existed. (Male homosexuality was outlawed; the female version was unimaginable.)"

In this context, Anne Lister's explicitness a blessing, as her society's imagination couldn't even fathom her existence. Sally Wrainwright, creator of Gentleman Jack, mentions how Anne Lister is "the first person in history who talked really clearly about gay lesbian sex. Prior to her diaries being decoded, people just didn’t believe that women had sex at this time. They thought women who had close relationships, they were romantic friendships rather than the fact that they were actually getting down and having a good time.” 

Lister’s detailed accounts of her sexual encounters are starkly contrasted to Sappho's whimsical and poetic musings of her love for women. Of course, this can be explained by the drastically differing time periods they both lived and wrote in and even reflect their personalities. But both are sacred, as their work exemplifies the various forms that queer expression can and did take.

In an introduction to a book of Sappho's poems, writer and translator John Maxwell Edmonds mentions Sappho's relationship with the girls she allegedly instructed in her school:

"Now these girls were more than pupils to Sappho; they were friends, and, some of them, bosom-friends. And in these cases, as sometimes will happen with highly emotional natures, the friendship could more fitly be described as love." 

This was written in 1921, which explains some of the language. But even still, it's cringe-worthy to read (bosom-friends???) because it presents lesbian love as a volatile whim. 

Women's desire for one another is still characterized as a girlish and feverish drive thought to wear itself out by adulthood. America's patriarchal and homophobic lens simultaneously hyper-sexualizes the physical connection between lesbians while dismissing their capacity for love.  

In an article about Sappho on Ancient History Encyclopedia, the author writes about scholars that advise against seeing her poems as biographical, given the possibility that Sappho could be writing from perspectives not her own. He also suggests: "While it is possible, then, that Sappho was a lesbian, it is equally possible that she wrote on many subjects but that her works expressing lesbian love are the ones that have survived most intact."

So little is actually known about her, and the lost pieces of her work allow for both misunderstanding and the opportunity to insert one's own interpretations.

From a heterosexual perspective, it'd be easy to overlook Sappho's romantic poetry towards women as odes to the goddesses, or even entertain the possibility she was writing from the perspective of a man. Isn't history's ambiguous understanding of Sappho’s work convenient for the status quo?

Sappho's ascent into mythology is mostly because so much about her is unknown. And this ambiguity is the birthplace of the queer imagination.

With so little reflections and representations of queerness, the gays are forced to improvise. We create our own stories, weaving our own narratives alongside heterosexual love stories. As a teenager, I'd write fan-fiction of my favorite movies and books but with characters whose desires resembled my own.

This creative, revisionist approach to history sees facts are unreliable. The logic of documentation is rendered obsolete. Does this make our interpretations any less legitimate? Absolutely not. For centuries, the history of the world has been controlled by the Western man. The off-chance that queerness and gender-deviance appeared in the timeline of the past could have easily been erased.

We see the power dynamics even in Anne Lister's journals. She's rich, white, and English who inherited property from her family. Her wealth was generational. In some ways, her ability to be educated and write about her lesbian experiences is born from wealth disparity and colonialism.

It's such an agonizing contradiction. One that appears again and again throughout history and into the present day. Those in power, those with power are the ones who control the narrative. Or at least, have access to it.

While historical representations of queerness matter, they are hard to come by. Imaginatively inserting our narratives into a timeline that refuses our existence is often our only option to see ourselves in the past. If people want to see Sappho's work as queer, then so be it. The heterosexual world commands the legal, social, and cultural realms of our lives. It tries to manipulate our thoughts, make us doubt our instincts. It threatens to overwhelm our minds with internalized images of the "ideal relationship" and a "normal" way of being.

And yet, queer people inherently aren't and can't be what heteropatriarchy wants us to be. I am reminded of Audre Lorde's exploration of the erotic, a concept she describes as "an assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives."

She goes on to explain the many ways heteropatriarchy has abused her interpretation of the erotic in her essay "Uses of the Erotic:"

"The erotic has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation. For this reason, we have often turned away from the exploration and consideration of the erotic as a source of power and information, confusing it with its opposite, the pornographic. But pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling. Pornography emphasizes sensation without feeling."

To me, imagination is part of erotic power. Creative visualization is a form of witchcraft. If pornography is the erotic's opposite, then hyper-sexual representations of queer connection is the opposite to our imaginative, feeling-orientated understanding of pleasure and love. Queer people inserting their desires and narratives in the gaps throughout history is sorcery.  

In Candace's Walsh essay "The Queer Gaze and the Ineffable in THE PRICE OF SALT," she examines the ways Patricia Highsmith describes queer desire in her novel The Price of Salt.

Walsh writes: "The first time Therese sees Carol, she notes, “She was tall and fair, her long figure graceful in the loose fur coat that she held open with a hand on her waist.” Carol’s form is described from head to toe—“tall,” with a “long figure.” She’s both dynamic in the scene, and whole. This contrasts with a style of description that might depict a character in respect to the parts of her body, zooming in on breasts, waist, or legs, descriptions that emphasize parts over whole." 

Even if you never read The Price of Salt, it's evident that the sexual tension between Therese and Carol is not pornographic, it’s erotic. As Candace Walsh points out, Highsmith’s description of Carol isn’t stagnant or fragmented, but dynamic and reflective of the various pieces that make up an entire person.

Heterosexuality characterizes queerness as hypersexual because it's seen as a deviance from sex between a woman and a man, the puritanical union which results in reproduction. Queer sex doesn't create a product (although this isn’t always the case). Queerness is therefore, unproductive in capitalist terms and exists solely for the pornographic.

This couldn't be further from the truth. Queerness is productive, but in capitalism’s terms. Being queer is understanding love in its infinite forms, allowing it to manifest through feelings. It breathes life into sexual encounters, but this isn't the only form it takes. Queerness is not simply an action, something we do, but a state of being. Of existing beyond society-imposed limitations.

The first time Therese and Carol have sex, Highsmith uses the metaphor of the arrow to describe an orgasm. It's so subtle that I had to reread the passage, and yet the image is so ripe with eroticism that I'm reminded of another line from Audre Lorde's essay: "To share the power of each other's feelings is different from using another's feelings as we would use a kleenex."

While writing this essay, I've been thinking about the implications of the phrase "Love is love." It's often used to remind the heterosexual institution that love between queer individuals is no different than love between straight people. In some ways, this is true. Love is not gendered, nor does it ascribe to strict binaric guidelines. But to me, queer love is not the same as straight love.

Queer love is love infused with feelings of impossibility. Queer love was first born of the imagination, before it was seen. It began with a feeling, rather than an image. Queer love is eroticism in the sense that it doesn't prioritize sensation over feeling or vice versa. It's a union of tenderness and fear, anxiety and euphoria.  

Once Therese and Carol realize their love has consequences, Therese thinks: “How is it possible to be afraid and in love…The two things did not go together." And yet queer individuals are forced to exist between these two opposing emotions.

Queerness is so otherized by heterosexuality that even its essence becomes distant and unfamiliar, too different to synthesize with the straight reality. This is arbitrary. Even my feelings about queer love existing on an opposing plan is arbitrary. It doesn't have to be like this, yet heteropatriarchy insists that it does.

This is why the queer creative revisionist process of history is so important. History shouldn't be so straight, with so many holes and gaps that leave out vital timelines. Yet it is. So I'm going to keep thinking of Sappho as a woman-loving, erotic-weaving poet, no matter if her queerness can never be proven.

Cassidy Scanlon is a Capricorn poet and witch who uses her artistic gifts as a channel for healing herself and others. She writes poetry and CNF about mental health, astrology, queer love, pop culture representation, and how social structures shape our perceptions of history and mythology. When she’s not writing, she can be found petting the local stray cats, exploring the swamps of Florida, reading 5 books at a time, and unwinding with her Leo girlfriend. 

You can visit her astrology blog Mercurial Musings and explore more of her publications on her website.