Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Out and About - September 2009


Above and right: On the afternoon and evening of Thursday, September 3, my friend Kathleen and I took in the sights, sounds, and tastes of the Minnesota State Fair.

For more images and commentary on our time at the “Great Minnesota Get-Together,” click here.



Above and left: On the evening of September 5 I accompanied my friends Kathleen and Joey to the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.

For more images of our “river walk,” click here.









Above: With my friend Phil in Northfield, MN - Sunday, September 12, 2009.

I accompanied Phil and his parents to Northfield for the town’s annual “Defeat of Jesse James Days” celebration (right).

For more images and commentary on this event, click here.






Above: Standing at right with Fr. Robert Caruso and his partner John Webster - Saturday, September 19, 2009.

Robert had just delivered an informative lecture on Old Catholicism. For more images of this event and to read an excerpt from Robert’s recently released book, The Old Catholic Church: Understanding the Origin, Essence, and Theology of a Church that is Unknown and Misunderstood by Many in North America, click here.



Above: With (from left) John, Robert, and Rick - who, along with our friend Brian - gathered on the evening of Sunday, September 20, to watch the broadcast of the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards.

It was a fun night, though I was somewhat pissed off that my favorite TV show, True Blood, was pretty much snubbed.



Above: On Sunday, September 27, we experienced our first evening of real fall weather here in the Twin Cities. Yes, it was cold, dark, and windy: the perfect night to enjoy a hot roast dinner! And I did so with Phil and members of his family. It was lovely.



Above and below: Tuesday, September 29, was not only Michaelmas, but the birthday of my dear friend Brigid McDonald, CSJ (second from right). Our friends Theresa O’Brien, CSJ (second from left), and Rita O’Brien, CSJ (right) had also recently celebrated their birthdays. Accordingly, I hosted a little party for the three of them at my home.



Above: With my friend Jane McDonald, CSJ - Tuesday, September 29, 2009.



Above: My friends Brian, Kathleen, and Rick - September 29, 2009.



Above: My friends David McCaffrey and Rita McDonald, CSJ.

As I’ve mentioned previously, Rita and Margeurite Corcoran, CSJ (left) were my “companions” during my journey to becoming a CSJ consociate.









Above: Jane, Kathleen, and Colleen.





Above: Autumn comes to the Twin Cities.

For more images of my “September garden,” click here.

Understanding the Old Catholic Church (Part 1)

This is the first of three posts featuring excerpts from my friend Robert Caruso’s recently-released book, The Old Catholic Church: Understanding the Origin, Essence, and Theology of a Church that is Unknown and Misunderstood by Many in North America.

It’s a highly accessible book and one that has been described as a “well-researched and passionately argued presentation of the Old Catholic understanding of the dynamic nature of what the Nicene Creed describes as the ‘one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.’”


I have to say that the more of the Old Catholic Church that I experience, the more I recognize it (ironically enough) as a truer embodiment of Vatican II’s understanding of church than that offered by the current expression of Roman Catholicism – mired as it is in a sad and sorry state of retrenchment and reaction. (More about this in Part 3.)

Oh, and don’t let the “Old” part fool you. The Old Catholic Church is a very dynamic and progressive expression of Catholicism - one that is accepting and welcoming of women and gay people. How welcoming? Well, here’s what Fr. Caruso (who’s a partnered gay man) had to say about this matter when I
interviewed him for The Wild Reed in September 2007:

The Old Catholic Church welcomes all to the full participation in the life, mission, and worship of the local church. This means that gays and lesbians are not just welcome to the table at Eucharist, but are welcome to fully participate in the gospel ministry of Christ’s church sharing his or her diverse gifts with the local eucharistic fellowship.

The Church (in general) must be reminded of its eschatological nature that it has forgotten about in its preoccupation of idolizing heterosexual marriage (specifically marital procreation) as the foundational model of God, Christ, and the pilgrim Church on earth. Same-sex couples show all Christians just how truly queer Christianity is. “In Christ there is no male or female (Galations 3:23)…In heaven there is no marriage (Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:35).” Gay and lesbian couples may help the Church recover its vision of heaven, through our mutual covenant bond in baptism and the celebration of Eucharist together. This quintessentially speaks to the eucharistic ecclesiological Old Catholic nature of unity in diversity.



Robert Caruso is pastor of Cornerstone Old Catholic Community in St. Paul, and after this community’s weekly Mass on Saturday, September 19, Robert presented a short but fascinating lecture on Old Catholicism. The images that accompany this post were taken at this event – one that was held at St. Paul on the Hill Episcopal Church.

_______________________________________


The Old Catholic Church is a path that enriches the complex history of the universal church through the ages. The historical complexity of Old Catholicism involves the three different movements that compose the current unified European Old Catholic churches known as the “Union of Utrecht.” Each national church belonging to the Union of Utrecht is rooted in its own historical situation and epoch, which testifies to the diversity and independence Old Catholics generally value.

The Old Catholic churches throughout the world are independent national churches that disagreed with the absolute power of the papacy and the claims of papal infallibility after the Council of Trent (1545-63). This opposition occurred in three separate and distinct historical movements. First, the Old Catholic church of Holland (1724); second, the churches of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Czech-Slovakia at the first Vatican Council (1869-70); and lastly, church groups located in North America, Great Britain, Philippines, and the Slavic nations in the twentieth-century leading to the present day. The novelty about these revolutionary movements against the Roman papacy is that they occurred from within the Roman rite (the principal ancient liturgical and canonical) tradition of the Latin rite Western Church. This implies that the genesis of Old Catholicism occurred as a Roman Catholic revolt against papal supremacy in all its forms. It must be clearly understood that Old Catholics never sought to create another church. The difference between Old Catholics and the churches born out of the Reformation is one of local church rights (Old Catholic) verses theological doctrinal differences (Reformation). This stated, Old Catholics still to this day “. . . do not wish to deny the historical primacy which several Ecumenical Councils and Fathers of the ancient church have attributed to the Bishop of Rome by recognizing him in title as Primus inter pares (first among equals).”*

The Old Catholic churches are distinctly different from the Protestant, Orthodox, and Anglican churches because the genesis of the Old Catholic movement occurred after the late fifteenth to early sixteenth-centuries’ Counter-Reformation and Council of Trent (1545-63). These events uniquely established and defined the Roman-rite (i.e., liturgical, canonical, monasticism) of the Catholic church for close to four centuries thereafter (ca., 1563-1869). This stated, Old Catholicism maintained much of its distinctive Roman-rite characteristics in its liturgies and customs (e.g., the centrality of the seven sacraments and the celebration of Eucharist as the summit of the Christian life); and today, Old Catholic communicants, especially those who convert from the Roman church, are content being Old Catholic because of its liturgical similarities with the Roman-rite. It is very much a pietistic affection that is experienced in the heart of every Catholic, which in turn effects how one lives his or her life in the Eucharistic community of the local-universal church (the Body of Christ).

* The Declaration of Utrecht, 1889, para. 2. parenthesis added (English text).


NEXT: Part 2




See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Old Catholic Church: Catholicism Beyond Rome
- An interview with Robert Caruso.
Robert Caruso’s Scholarly Introduction to Old Catholicism
The Declaration of Utrecht
Robert Caruso on the Pentecost Rainbow Sash Presence at the Cathedral


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

St. Michael the Archangel: Perspectives and Portraits

Today, September 29, is traditionally known in Roman Catholicism as Michaelmas – the Feast of the Archangel Michael. (For a traditional perspective of St. Michael, see this previous Wild Reed post.)

This year I’ve chosen to acknowledge Michaelmas by sharing a number of perspectives and portraits of Michael – many of which are non-traditional. And as you’ll see from these particular non-traditional perspectives and portraits, the honoring of the Archangel Michael extends beyond Catholicism.

Let’s start with the image at left, one that I particularly appreciate. In it, the beautiful Michael holds up chains that he has broken – presumably with his sword. It reminds me of the words of a version of the “Our Father” that I pray:

Loose the mistakes that bind us,
as we release the cords we hold of others' guilt. Do not let surface things delude us but free us from all that holds us back.


Above: A traditionally-inspired portrait of St. Michael, but one that I found on the website of the Gaia Community.

I found what this website had to say about Michael quite fascinating.

Michael is entrusted with all events pertaining to the Earth’s Light grid and visionary geography. He supervises its major upgrades, in progress since the mid-1980s, in which additional geometric features are being “grown” out of the original grid to accommodate ever-increasing celestial light and consciousness.

Michael facilitates every step a human voluntarily makes towards what is called the Cosmic Intelligence and the revelation of the mysteries of all the holy sanctuaries around the planet. He is the harbinger of the Holy Spirit moving through the Earth grid.

On September 29, when the Moon is the furthest from the Earth for the whole year, the Archangel Michael purifies all aspects of the Earth’s visionary geography. Metaphorically, he clears negativities and blockages from all the plumbing networks of the planet: the energy lines, ley lines, and other conduits for the Light that engirdle the Earth as its Light body. Using his sword, he blesses the planet, all its creatures and sentient life forms, and shifts the energy of the Earth’s grid. It’s akin to a magnetic pole reversal, because the energy matrix of the Earth changes its polarity at Michaelmass in response to him.



Above: “The Archangel Michael” by Daniel Mirante.

Notes Mirante:

Art arises from the interplay of many levels of being, the communion of the higher with lower self. The recent cycle of paintings, Sophia, Archangel Michael and Receptivity came through exploring the roots of the Western consciousness, Zoroastrian, Gnostic, Hebrew, Christian and Sufi mysticism, which contain such an incredible internal poetic depth and glory. Once one gets beyond the arguments and objections, and stops throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it is like discovering a treasure trove. Its been buried for millennia but the numinous jewels sparkle as new. The power and glory and vanishingly tender energy in these Divine currents of Spirit is immense – and also a great challenge to the ego, which prefers to consolidate and collect itself, than be rendered humble and transparent.



Above: The Archangel Michael is often portrayed defeating Satan – who, in turn, is often depicted as a dragon (more on this later).

About this aspect of Michael’s legend Wikipedia notes:

The Talmudic tradition rendered [Michael’s] name as meaning “who is like El (God)?” In recent years, a popular mistake has become to translate the name as “One who is like God.” It is, however, meant as a question: “Who is like the Lord?” The name was said to have been the war-cry of the angels in the battle fought in heaven against Satan and his followers.

Note how in the image above Michael is depicted using chains to tie Satan up, whereas in the opening image the distinct impression I get is that the chains Michael holds are ones he has helped release us from. I see these chains as representing all those life-denying ways of being and relating that hold us back from experiencing God as fully as we can. And I see Michael as a particular expression or manifestation of God’s transforming love that we can call upon for help as we attempt to release ourselves from these life-denying ways of being and relating.



Above: I find this image interesting as it depicts Michael holding both a sword and a chalice. I’m unfamiliar with the significance of his holding of the latter.



Above: “St. Michael: Warrior and Defender” by Fr. John Giuliani.

Giuliani is renowned for his Native American-inspired artwork. Varun Gade of the Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute in Dayton, Ohio, has noted that:

[Fr. Giuliani] studied icon painting under a master in the Russian Orthodox style in New York in 1989. . . . [His] Native American icons [are] meant to “celebrate the soul of the Native American as the original spiritual presence on this continent, thus rendering his images with another dimension of the Christian faith.”


Above: Okay, this would have to be the gayest portrait of St. Michael I’ve ever seen! (Actually, the image that opens the previous Wild Reed post, The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon is also, surprise, surprise!, pretty gay.) This one actually looks like a cartoon superhero. And that’s still kinda gay as we all know how queer those superheroes can be.



Above: This is another image that I particularly appreciate. Why? Because Michael is shown taming the dragon, not killing it. This is significant as it actually reflects what the dragon originally represented in esoteric thought: not Satan but our shadow or lower self. This shadow self is part of us – a necessary part of us: no shadow, no light. The problem comes when we allow this side of ourselves to run amok.

Interestingly, in the early legends of dragons, the role of the knight wasn’t to slay the dragon but force it back to where it belonged, to put it in its appropriate place, in other words. The psychological insight is clear: balance is what it is all about; we need to befriend (and thus bring into balance) our shadow side, not seek to destroy it. That’s what this image seems to be depicting: Michael befriending and subduing the dragon before returning it to where it belongs.



See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
The Archangel Michael as Gay Icon
Michaelmas (2008)
The Allure of St. Sebastian
Mary of Magdala
The Inherent Sensuality of Roman Catholicism

Image 1: Teresa A. Nielsen.
Image 2: Artist unknown.
Image 3: Daniel Mirante.
Image 4: Artist unknown.
Image 5: Artist unknown.
Image 6: John Giuliani.
Image 7: Igino Giordano.
Image 8: Patti Blair.


Monday, September 28, 2009

Bishop Gumbleton: A Priesthood Set Apart and Above Others is Not the Way of Jesus


Following is an excerpt from a recent homily by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, whom I consider the most courageous and faithful-to-the-Gospel bishop in the U.S.

I have to say that I’ve never bought into the idea that someone becomes ontologically different simply because they have been ordained a Roman Catholic priest. I find it both refreshing and hopeful that a bishop has the courage to seemingly challenge this concept.


______________________________________


Jesus tries to give an image that the disciples might really catch on to. They’ve had a hard time accepting what he’s trying to say. They refused to accept that he’s going up to Jerusalem to let himself be handed over to his torturers and be put to death. They want him to use power and might and so on. He takes a child in front of them and he draws that child into their midst; he embraces the child. This isn’t because children are cute and lovely and so on. No; what Jesus was [reminding] them [of was that in] that culture and at that time, a child was a person without any rights, had no power.

This is within the Roman Empire and they simply were not even allowed the possibility of any kind of self-determination, even as they were growing up, so a child is a symbol of someone who is completely without right, without power, and can be used in any way. Jesus said, ‘When you receive a child like that into your midst, you’re receiving me, because I am one who rejects all power, all violence, all domination. I allow myself to be helpless, but always pouring forth love.’ See, helpless in a physical way, helpless in a materialistic way, but in charge in a sense, because of the love that he pours forth that can transform and change everything.

Have we really heard this message of Jesus? And within both the church and the world in which we live, do we try to carry out this message of Jesus? I find it disappointing really, that within our church right now, there seems to be kind of a movement to restore a certain kind of domination and status and power, if you will, to those who are to be the leaders of our communities, ordained ministers.

In recent weeks, Pope Benedict XVI . . . in one of [his] talks [in Rome] . . . told the crowd that Mary, the Blessed Mother, had (and these are his words) “a special affection for priests as her sons because they are more similar to Jesus.” In other words, the ordained priest, just by being ordained, has a status that puts him apart from, and obviously above, others in the church.

Now that isn’t the way of Jesus. At the Last Supper, what did he do? He got down and washed the disciples’ feet, but he was celebrating what we think of as the first Eucharist. He wasn’t presiding, overseeing; he was acting as a servant. He had given up power; he didn’t need power like that, the world’s power. And here were are, now they’re talking about putting the altar rail back so there’s a barrier between the priest and the people, make sure the priest is above and better, holier. Not true!

It’s a community of disciples that Jesus calls together, where everyone is equal in freedom and dignity. No one is over others, but we seem to have fallen back into that pattern of wanting to have hierarchs in the church, and then obviously, “lower-archs,” if you want to call them that, the people in the pews. Wrong – that’s not the way Jesus intended it. We really have to struggle not to let that happen.

After the Second Vatican Council, there was a real movement forward to make our church a community of disciples, again everyone equal in freedom and dignity, no one over others. We need to make it become that way again, or even move more fully in that direction, because that’s the only way we’re going to be a light to the world around us, if we really become a servant church and those leading in the church become servant ministers.

To read Bishop Gumbleton’s homily in its entirety, click here.


See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Bishop Thomas Gumbleton: “It Isn’t the Church You’re Being Asked to Say Yes To . . . It’s Jesus”
Stamping Out the Light
Authentic Catholicism: The Antidote to Clericalism

Recommended Off-site Links:
The Peace Pulpit: Homilies by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Bishop Gumbleton: For Gay Catholics, Conscience is the Key


Image 1: Ford Madox Brown.
Image 2: Carl Heinrich Bloch.
Image 3: Kenneth Wyatt.

Shirtless Guy Offers Survival Tips for Gay Catholics

Okay, here’s something novel: a cute shirtless guy sharing “survival tips” on the Internet for those of us who are Catholic and gay!

Some friends recently alerted me to this particular guy and his series of videos - and jokingly suggested that I start making similar ones for The Wild Reed! Hmm, I don’t think so. Mind you, it would certainly be an incentive to get into shape.

Anyway, the very much in-shape guy who is making a series of interesting and, well, let’s be honest, visually appealing videos, goes by the name of Davey Wavey.

Although Davey no longer identifies as Catholic, he nevertheless experienced (“survived,” as he says) both Catholic high school and university. In offering a number of survival tips for young people who are gay and Catholic, Davey also draws on Gregory Gerald’s In Jupiter’s Shadow, a “memoir/mystery” that “chronicles a religious boy’s struggle with forbidden attraction.”






As I’m sure you’d agree, most of these “tips” could apply to anyone, regardless of denomination. Here are a few of them that I particularly appreciate:

Remember that where there is love there is God, and it doesn’t matter with whom that consensual love is shared.

Call in sick the day they talk about the “sin” of masturbation.

Sublimate your “Catholic guilt” with regular exercise.

Remember that all the rules, all the laws, and all the regulations were written by people, and that people have a pretty good track record for lapses of judgment.

Internalize only those teachings that ring true in your heart. You don’t need to believe something just because a man in a robe tells you it’s true. Think for yourself.

Read the David and Jonathan story in the Bible (1 Samuel: 18). And if ever you’re doubting yourself, read it again because those two were so doing it.

As you get older, and if you want to stay Catholic, try to find a more progressive Catholic church in your area.

Go to SoulForce.org and read the publication, What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Homosexuality.

Trust God enough to accept yourself as you were created to be. And, yes, this takes guts and you’ll have to go out on a limb, but God will be out on that limb with you.

Know that our good friend Jesus never said one word about same-sex relationships.

Realize that loving yourself isn’t a sin. It’s respecting the creation that God made, which is you.

To read a number of responses to his “survival guide” for gay Catholics, visit this page on Davey Wavey’s website.


Recommended Off-site Links:
Break the Illusion – Davey Wavey’s website.
Davey Wavey’s Coming Out Story
In Jupiter’s Shadow - The official website.


And here are some related Wild Reed posts. (Think of them as my words of hope and advice for gay Catholics!):
Be Not Afraid, You Can Be Happy and Gay
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2009)
A Catholic Presence at Gay Pride (2008)
Inclusive Catholics Celebrate Gay Pride
Gay Pride as a Christian Event
Trusting God’s Generous Invitation
Choosing to Stay
Celebrating Our Sanctifying Truth
Listen Up, Papa!
No Stranger Am I
Our Catholic “Stonewall Moment”
Gay People and the Spiritual Life
The Gifts of Homosexuality
Catholic and Gay in the UK
A Catholic Rebellion?
The Catholic Church and Gays: An Excellent Overview
Catholic Teaching on Homosexuality: Complex and Nuanced
Reflections on the Primacy of Conscience
The Question of an “Informed” Catholic Conscience
Jesus and the Centurion (Part 1)
Jesus and the Centurion (Part 2)
Tips for Thinking Catholics
What It Means To Be Catholic
“More Lovely Than the Dawn”: God as Divine Lover
Getting It Right
God is Love
Cherish

Sunday, September 27, 2009

September Garden


Writes Cliff Séruntine:

September: Time of the darkening equinox, the balance between sun and shadow. Full of the magic of change – not always a comfortable magic. Its twilight empties the heart of its mortal dream. Yet, September is not a bleak month, but a time of transformation. There is no dream as fair as the host rushing “twixt night and day,” a symbol of the continuance of life in the Otherworld. This is the Celtic spiral of life – death and rebirth. This balance . . . it is the mystery of the time of the Autumnal Equinox.











See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Rainy October Afternoon
Spring Garden
A Perfect Day
Mary Jo's Lakeside Garden
Summer Blooms
Summer Blooms II
Helianthus annuus

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Sensus Fidelium Discussion Continues


Thursday’s post, “
If the People Don’t Believe It, It’s Not True,” has generated much discussion – both in the comments section of that particular post, and on at least two other blogsites.

As you may recall, I shared on Thursday excerpts from a 2003 National Catholic Reporter article by Arthur Jones. In this article, Jones interviews Richard Sipe who shares his thoughts on Roman Catholicism’s underdeveloped sexual theology, the need for reform in this area of church teaching, and the power of the sensus fidelium (the “sense of the faithful”) which, Sipes contends, it at odds with the hierarchical church’s understanding of the meaning and purpose of sexuality. In discussing this last point, Sipe offers the quip: “If the people don’t believe it, it’s not true.”

As I said, Sipe’s views on both the church’s sexual theology and the sensus fidelium have generated an interesting exchange of ideas – both here at The Wild Reed and on the blogsites of my fellow gay Catholic bloggers William Lindsey and Terence Weldon.

I particularly recommend the following informed and articulate reflections on this important issue offered by William and Terence:


A Reader Responds: Standing Newman on His Head - William D. Lindsey (Bilgrimage, September 25, 2009).

Sexual Ethics and the Sensus Fidelium - Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, September 25, 2009).

And More Synchronicity: Newman Again – Misappropriating and Misrepresenting the Facts - William D. Lindsey (Bilgrimage, September 26, 2009).

Church and Laity: More on the Sensus Fidelium - Terence Weldon (Queering the Church, September 27, 2009).


For previous posts, comments, and links on the sensus fidelium, the magisterium, and “faithful dissent” see:
The Truth About the Spirit of Vatican II Finally Revealed!
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 1)
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 2)
Reading the Documents of Vatican II (Part 3)
Here Comes Everybody!
Robert McClory’s “Prophetic Work”
A Catholic Understanding of Faithful Dissent (Part 1)
A Catholic Understanding of Faithful Dissent (Part 2)
The Many Forms of Courage (Part III)
Responding to Excommunication
A Church That Can and Cannot Change
Will We See Change?
The Catholic Challenge
The Treasure and the Dross


Image: “Sensus Fidelium” by Annette Falk Lund.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Enrique Iglesias

This evening’s Wild Reed “Friday night music spot” features a great track from Enrique Iglesias’ 2007 album Insomniac – a title that apparently refers to Enrique’s recording process: working at night, sleeping during the day.

Truth be told, it’s a schedule that, lately, I can very much relate to!


About the album itself, Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle writes:


Lyrically, [“Insomniac”] samples virtually every aspect of love: exploration, ecstasy, regret. But it’s not just the words; it’s the way Iglesias delivers them. He goes from breathy boyishness to full-throttle pleas, often within the space of a single song. . . . Iglesias’ past discs have showcased retro-’80s fare. It’s apparent again in the neon synth groove of “Tired of Being Sorry.”


“Tired of Being Sorry” is actually a cover of Indie pop band Ringside’s song of the same name. Scott Thomas, Ringside’s song writer and lead vocalist, produced Iglesias’s version. Wikipedia notes that Iglesias’s version is “essentially the same though he uses stronger synth pop elements than in the original and the line ‘Chandler and Van Nuys’ has been changed to ‘Eighth and Ocean Drive,’ exchanging an intersection in Los Angeles to an intersection in Miami where Iglesias is based.”

The music video for the song is directed by Jessy Terrero and is said to have been inspired by the movie
Blade. The video depicts Iglesias as a vampire perched atop a building across from the LA skyline, remembering how he was “turned.”



“Tired of Being Sorry” is probably my favorite song from Insomniac. When I first heard the song’s introduction I thought to myself, “Hey, that would make a great ring tone.” I subsequently downloaded the song to my phone, only to discover that the part of the song that’s sampled is the chorus, not the instrumental introduction.

Oh, well. I still think it’s a good ring tone. And sometimes when I’m with friends and it goes off, I breezily declare: “Enrique calling!” . . . Yeah, I wish.






Did you know that Enrique forever endeared himself to his gay fans when at a concert in London he brought a young gay man up on stage and serenaded him with his hit song “Hero.” He’s definitely one straight man totally secure in his heterosexuality while remaining open to the reality and experiences of those of us who are not heterosexual.

In doing so, Enrique Iglesias embodies that “fresh take on masculinity” explored previous at The Wild Reed (see
here, here, and here). I have a lot of respect for him for this embodiment. Plus, he comes across in interviews as a very likable, down-to-earth, and funny guy.


NEXT: Ding, Dong!


Recommended Off-site Links:
Enrique Iglesias’ Official Website
A 2007 interview with Enrique Iglesias
Another interview with Enrique



Music artists previously featured at The Wild Reed: Helen Reddy, Australian Crawl, PJ and Duncan, Cass Elliot, The Church, Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield, Wall of Voodoo, Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Pink Floyd, Kate Ceberano, Judith Durham, Wendy Matthews, Buffy Sainte-Marie, 1927, Mavis Staples, Maxwell, Joan Baez, Tee Set, Darren Hayes, Suede, Wet, Wet, Wet, Engelbert Humperdinck, The Cruel Sea, Shirley Bassey, Loretta Lynn & Jack White, Maria Callas, Foo Fighters, Rosanne Cash, Jenny Morris, Scissor Sisters, Kate Bush, Rufus Wainwright, and Dusty Springfield.