Lovetastic: dating for gay men who believe in love

Having recently escaped the semi-hermetic confines of graduate school, I've returned to New York (the city that I've always loved even though it doesn't always love me back) where I'm eager to make new connections of the friendship or romantic variety. Since my wallet and I are not particularly fond of the club/bar scene, I thought I'd take a chance on this site and see what happens.

For the moment, I'm working at a very cool non-profit. However, since I've been trained as a writer, I'm looking to finnagle a job in journalism or publishing in the not-so-distant future. Aside from writing, I'm also passionate about photography, film, travel, and my friends. Though I'm well-educated and discerning, pretension and elitism often make my skin crawl. Hailing from a "Minnesota-nice" background, I think of myself as a down-to-earth, imaginative, perceptive, loyal, and generous guy... but one with a streak of subversive and stinging humor to boot.

Since I'm not ordering a futon from IKEA, I can't say what I'm looking for with specific, lordly standards, but it would be terrific to meet other guys with similar dispositions and interests who would love to explore the city with new people.

Hmmm...though I'm no proponent of book banning and, in contrast to that '50s TV Show "Queen for a Day" with its tiara and velvet gown, I cannot quite envision what regalia I'd don as the "Censor for a Day" (I don't imagine it would be that flattering...probably a burnt-sienna smoking jacket and pince-nez spectacles), I'll go out on a limb and say: "Sudoku for Bathrooms." On a recent cramped airplane ride, I was wedged next to a heavily-bronzed girl in ugg boots who was engrossed in said book and while it's fine to devote your precious waking hours to adding up numbers to equal nine, it's more than a little nasty to make it clear to everyone around you where your reading material has been.

Oh yes...in Mandarin Chinese. If I told you that "Your mother is a turtle," I would most likely be met by a blank stare. However, if I said the same thing in China, I would probably be chased down a Beijing street by a man wielding a soup ladle. This observation might just come from past experience...

splendiferous

Lorrie Moore, Tolstoy, Albert Camus, David Leavitt, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Joan Didion, Haruki Murakami, Don DeLillo, Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Aleksandar Hemon, T.J. Jackson Lears, Jincey Willett, David Sedaris, J.M. Coetzee, Margaret Atwood, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Stuart Dybek, Ian McEwan

Rufus Wainwright, Beck, Devotchka, Arcade Fire, Bowie, Nina Simone, Blur, My Morning Jacket, Youssou N'Dour, Michael Nyman, The Smiths, Rolling Stones, The Cure, British Sea Power, Bette Midler, Air, Gorillaz, Gershwin...it's pretty eclectic

Short Cuts, The Best of Youth, Safe, King of the Hill, Fearless, Goodfellas, Heathers, Yi Yi, Manhattan, Election, Fargo, All About My Mother, Amarcord, Ghost World, Ghostbusters, The Player, Secrets and Lies, The Silence of the Lambs, Flirting with Disaster, Six Degrees of Separation, Mulholland Drive, and many, many more....

Balthus, Rene Magritte, Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Gerhard Richter, Robert Bechtle, James Rosenquist, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Picasso, Mark Rothko

"All great deeds and all great thoughts have a ridiculous beginning. Great works are often born on a street corner or in a restaurant's revolving door."-Albert Camus