Tootfinder

Calamus 34 I dreamed in a dream
On the surface this short poem is a sort of City on a Hill vision. But I'm going to go with a more radical reading.
This poem reads to me as a fantasy of a gay society. A city of men, lovers, set apart from the rest of the world.
a city invincible to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth ...
the quality of robust love ...
the actions of the men of that city
And in all their looks and words.
I can't plausibly argue Whitman conceived of a city set apart in the way I imagine. Although all of Calamus is him constructing the idea of a society of lovers, comrades, brothers, robust love. That to me is very gay.
Intriguingly, in the unpublished Live Oak draft of this poem it is even more explicitly gay:
I saw them tenderly love each other ...
Nothing was greater there than manly love
It seems to me he dreamed a very gay city.

Trumpy and Epstein were lovers
O Lordy, how they could love
They swore to be true to each other
Just as true as the stars above
He was her man but he done her wrong

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Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers:
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https://open.spotify.com/track/426eL4gFMqgtu3hulUEMFs

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White Magic for Lovers:
🎵 Count the Rings
#WhiteMagicforLovers
https://chordorchard.bandcamp.com/track/count-the-rings
https://open.spotify.com/track/1fIotwGHpRfAddcI76onyL

Australian Book Lovers
Great Australian Pods Podcast Directory: #GreatAusPods

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- John Coltrane - Barbara Dennerlein - Miles Davis
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Calamus 33 No labor-saving machine
Another poem in a style I don't care for. A series of negations, Whitman declaiming all the things he is not doing. On a theme I also don't care for, Whitman talking about his own legacy.
The nice part is what he does imagine his legacy to be:
these carols, vibrating through the air, I leave,
For comrades and lovers.
I love that phrase "vibrating through the air", delicious poetry. And once again Whitman's declares his passion for comrades and lovers, a return to the central gay theme of Calamus.

Dear God... Kristi Noem is a certified PoS.
Republican dog lovers: Look yourself in the mirror & say outloud that you won't stand by this level of cruelty.
☑️ Kristi Noem Dog-Killing Story Is Actually Worse in Context
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/articl…

Kristi Noem Dog-Killing Story Is Actually Worse in Context
The Kristi Noem dog-killing story is actually worse in context. The governor is encouraging people to read her new book, ‘No Going Back,’ and judge the anecdote about fatally shooting her dog, Cricket, for themselves. She probably shouldn’t.

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #SundaySoul
Social Lovers:
🎵 Feel My Love
#SocialLovers
https://sociallovers-uncut.bandcamp.com/album/feel-my-love-time-warp
https://open.spotify.com/track/1XOuETN0BT0qGDJcoPFcoO

This Tempeh Parmesan Recipe Has Gone Viral For A Reason #plantbased

Viral Tempeh Parmesan Recipe Is a Win for Vegan Cheese Lovers
Can tempeh make a convincing plant-based parmesan? Vegan YouTuber Merle O'Neal puts a viral TikTok recipe to the test.

Calamus 28 When I peruse the conquered fame of heroes
My surface reading is this is a celebration of the common man, perhaps soldiers, over the more famous generals and presidents. But this commentary encourages me to dig deeper.
First, to highlight the gay text...
the brotherhood of lovers ... Through youth, and through middle and old age, how unfaltering, how affectionate and faithful they were
Very homoromantic language! Male lovers who stay together through their whole lives, affectionate.
The last fillip here is Whitman's own stance: "pensive... filled with the bitterest envy". Whitman admires these lovers and envies them. That's a striking feeling to disclose!

ah yes, a representative for an obscure IPTV app targeting the Latin market, using a Chinese Telegram account made in the past 10 days. not suspicious at all.

I finally finished the blogpost including some new photos and a short video (!!) from my hike last Saturday.
To me it was a really really gorgeous day!
Read the story here: https://www.franzgraf.de/blog/2025/getting-up-early-for-the-mountains/
(a…

hey, a new jonathan richman album, featuring jerry harrison on a bunch of tunes (ie. half of the modern lovers). https://jonathanrichman.bandcamp.com/album/only-frozen-sky-anyway

🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on KEXP's #PositiveVibrations
Freddie McGregor:
🎵 Lovers Rock
#FreddieMcGregor
https://jacarandamusic.bandcamp.com/track/ask-you-for-a-dance

Coffee and pastry lovers in the Twin Cities . . . the staff at Groundswell could use a little help if you have a little to spare. https://gofund.me/48ade0a3

Donate to Support Groundswell and staff after fire, organized by janette maruska
Sadly, our neighborhood Cafe, Groundswell caught fire around 10pm on 5/22 lea… janette maruska needs your support for Support Groundswell and staff after fire

Sam & Jony
Sam & Jony was sweethearts, oh LoveFrom how they did love
Swore to be true to each other, true as OpenAI above
Jony was his io, he wouldn't do Sam wrong

Sam & Jony were lovers
#IO #OpenAI

gardening trivia of the day / no I don't want to get into roses I am just rabbit holing rose varieties and gardens for no reason
#TIL #roses

Calamus 18 City of my walks and joys!
A celebration of Manhattan. I love Whitman's embrace of cities as being just as vital as nature unspoiled. It reflects the humanist aspect of his joy in the world, not a Thoreau-like rejection of civilization.
I also love that Whitman is writing about cruising the streets, making eye contact with potential lovers, celebrating offerings of love.
as I pass, O Manhattan! your frequent and swift flash of eyes offering me love
Offering me the response of my own—these repay me,
Lovers, continual lovers, only repay me.
Whitman punched up the first line in later editions, escalating to "City of orgies, walks and joys!"

🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers:
🎵 Egyptian Reggae
#NowPlaying #JonathanRichman #TheModernLovers
https://open.spotify.com/track/1NBp4Y97Dab7vOqGWTEdpz

Animal lovers: This was really tough to watch & you will have tears in your eyes but I PROMISE you it's worth watching to the end.
▶️ Dramatic Rescue: A Miracle Happens to a Dying Mother Cat and Her Three A...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=qefBwoSH7GY&si=Sv5HEm…

Calamus 23 This moment as I sit alone
A promise of global unity, Whitman sharing his adulation for men in other countries.
I guess this is an antidote to Whitman's nationalism? His celebrations of America seem sweet and sincere but they are very American-centric. Here he's explicitly saying men of other lands can be just as wise, beautiful, or benevolent as American men. It seems unusual that he feels he has to say it explicitly.
As for the queer reading, his conclusion is
I know we should be brethren and lovers
There's that word, "lovers". It's so brash it's hard to understand. It seems uncharacteristically direct even understanding Whitman as a gay poet. Maybe this is some 19th century romantic language, mixing what feels very gay in with a more general celebration of brotherhood? Or maybe it is literally what it says, Whitman eroticizing international men.

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The Modern Lovers:
🎵 Government Center
#TheModernLovers
https://penicillinbaby.bandcamp.com/track/government-center-the-modern-lovers
https://open.spotify.com/track/0msndzhndgck9wXwECg8ms

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#JazzRecordRequests
- Remembering Art Pepper, Wes Montgomery and Ella Fitzgerald
Join our community of jazz lovers. Alyn Shipton is waiting for your requests: email jazzrecordrequests@bbc.co.uk or use #jazzrecordrequests on social.
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🇺🇦 Auf radioeins läuft...
The Modern Lovers, Richman, Jonathan:
🎵 I'm straight
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https://open.spotify.com/track/2JqAw6sCrvqZUHCOp4n8zk

Calamus 42 To the young man
A short poem but very hot, dripping with latent queer meaning. Or pederasty, if I'm being honest.
The poem is literally Whitman offering to teach a young man. "To absorb, to engraft, to develop". And "to help him become élève", a fancy French word for student, and the choice there certainly raises an eyebrow.
But then what qualifications does this student require? Here, in the negation:
If he be not silently selected by lovers, and do not silently select lovers
That's not the usual test scores and sports achievements! Instead Whitman seems to have a specific extracurricular activity in mind. (And note the "select" directly echoes the "picking me out" in the previous poem.)
This poem becomes particularly bold when understanding it as Whitman speaking directly to the reader. Perhaps a young man that Whitman can take under his wing.
I'm being a bit silly but this kind of mentorship has a long, sexy gay history.

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Judith Bingham, Tenebrae, Martha McLorinan & Nigel Short:
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Calamus 40 That shadow, my likeness
An odd little poem to find in Calamus. I like it, I connect to the existential doubt.
How often I question and doubt whether that is really me
The self Whitman is unsure of is the quotidian self, the one that works and talks and shops. What does he embrace as the real him?
among my lovers, and carolling my songs, I never doubt whether that is really me.
There's our lusty Whitman, finding his true self in his lovers and his poetry.
PS: this poem introduced me to the lovely word chaffer.

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Shirley Bassey:
🎵 Don't Take the Lovers from the World
#ShirleyBassey
https://open.spotify.com/track/2glbaKEUepbg9Q3kkyKd7R

Calamus 20 I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing
What a heartaching poem of loneliness and the need for the love of another! Just wonderful. I understand now why this poem is so popular, particularly as a gay poem. It is full of meaning and is quite clear about it.
I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves, standing alone there, without its friend, its lover near—for I knew I could not
There's a more cerebral interpretation of this work, particularly if you understand "leaves" to mean "pages in my poetry book Leaves of Grass". Whitman talking about his own poetic inspiration from lovers.
Which well enough. But I'm more interested in Whitman's expressed need for "manly love". Which is clearly on his mind constantly:
my own dear friends ... I believe lately I think of little else than of them
Also Whitman's own eroticization of nature and himself. Here speaking of the tree,
its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself

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- Lalo Schifrin / Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival Preview
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This year is the 35th anniversary of Queers Read This. A key piece of LGBT activism, arguing for pride and direct action. It had a huge influence on my life.
An army of lovers cannot lose.