My father and I are in Branson to see my brother and his wife, and to celebrate my father's 86th birthday. They tell us an old friend from New Jersey will be joining us for part of the weekend—a guy named Joe.

They have told me about Joe in the past. He's a great big Italian my brother worked with for a time in New Jersey. They've stayed in touch over the years, seeing each other and respective families a couple of times a year. My father has met Joe also and speaks highly of him.

Maybe I've watched too many Godfather movies, or have preconceived notions of what New Jersey Italians are like. I picture a guy with no neck, a broken nose, and an accent thicker than San Francisco fog. He's GOT to look like someone right out of the Sopranos.

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Hi from Eureka Springs, Arkansas--the funkiest little town in America and perhaps the entire world!

This place has so much character--and so many characters--I can't believe it took me 40 years to discover it. A mere village of just 2,000 people, Eureka Springs is New Orleans meets Aspen meets San Francisco meets Hooterville! I got here two weeks ago today, and I'm here for good!

So how did this Houston-based journalist end up in the alternate universe that is Eureka Springs? After spending the first week of July at the Rainbow Gathering, camped out with 5,000 hippies and freaks of every stripe in the gorgeous Ozark National Forest of Arkansas, my two traveling companions and I descended on Eureka Springs, just an hour's drive to the north, to come down from our Rainbow experience.

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In less than two weeks many Eureka Springs' artists will hit the road and venture into nearby Benton County to participate in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade Art Festival, Sept 7th and 8th.

Produced by the Eureka Springs Artist Registry and Stiel Direct LLC, the festival is a juried show and sale featuring outside displays in the Pinnacle Hills Promenade Mall in Rogers.

Although there will be exhibiting artists from many areas of the country, the majority are from Eureka Springs.

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My father is 86 years old this month. He?'s in remarkably good shape for a man his age. He'?s always looked much younger than he is ? still as slender as he was in college, has all his teeth, beautiful thick salt-and-pepper hair, and his choice of widow women, if he wanted them.

He doesn't.

My mother died 14 years ago. Dad has been taking care of the house and living alone since. Taking care of the house except for cleaning, that is; 51 years of marriage to The Cleanest Woman On Earth had no effect on his inability to wipe the kitchen counter or vacuum the carpet.

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Iris and Rick Feutz own and operate two outstanding galleries in Eureka Springs. Both galleries exclusively feature American art that includes work by many local artists.

Ten years ago the couple relocated From Maryland and opened Iris in the Park on the ground level of the Basin Park Hotel, #8 Spring Street.

The Serendipity Gallery is two years old and can be found on the main floor of the historic Crescent Hotel at 75 Prospect.

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I haven?t been to a movie in quite a while. I like movies, I just don?t go much any more in my old age. I prefer to rent them and watch in the privacy of the not-so-great room at Hell?s Half Acre. Some movies lose a lot in the transfer from large screen to small, but the popcorn is cheaper at home. I don?t have to listen to people cough and babies cry, and I can mash the little ?pause? button whenever I want. So I generally avoid theaters.

I did go to see ?Brokeback Mountain? in the theater. (I had to in order to keep my Homosexual Agenda membership card.) That was the last movie I?'ve seen in a theater.

The other day I was thinking about the first time I ever went to a theater. I couldn'?t have been more than 5 or 6 years old. My mother took me to downtown Kansas City, on the streetcar, to the picture show. Yes, I?'m old. Back then they were ?picture shows?, ? at least in my family, ? and Kansas City still had streetcars.

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Tentatively, gay businesses launch effort to form gay (or not) business guild

By the time Eureka Springs Mayor Dani Wilson arrived, a few minutes into the first meeting of what may turn out to be an association of gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses, the only seat remaining for Her Honor was a commodious windowsill.

Wednesday night's inaugural meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd of more than 30 individuals representing at least 20 of the city's approximately 50 gay-owned businesses--and at least one gay-friendly enterprise.

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The propagandist never asks «Why?» He needs no justification, but rather only this granite faith. -- August Eigruber

In tonight's episode of Al Watch, we discover that the American Family Association, the radical, right wing organization that, called for a nationwide boycott of Eureka Springs, is making a documentary about our fair city.

As Disciple Jean Merritt explains in the Patriots' Herald,

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Henry David Thoreau (an enduring question mark in gay history) had his Walden Pond and Eureka Springs has its Lake Lucerne, a modest crescent-shaped lake cradled by forested mountains with a Victorian-era dam of hand-hewn native limestone at one end. And on the north side of the lake, barely visible through the oaks, cedars, redbuds and dogwoods lining the shore, stands a Hansel & Gretel cottage known as Autumn Moon.

«I have, as it were, my own sun and moon and stars,» wrote Thoreau of Walden, «and a little world all to myself.» For seekers of solitude and lovers of nature, Autumn Moon Cottage offers many of the same amenities--a placid lake to fish in, wooded trails to wander, wildlife--including deer, waterfowl and the occasional fox--and soul-soothing peace and tranquility.

And all of it a mere two miles from downtown Eureka Springs.

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If you ever wanted to see what goes on in the studio of an artist, your opportunity to do so can happen during the Annual Artists Studio Tour. For three days, September 28th, 29th, and 30th, twenty-one Eureka Springs' artists will open their studios to the public. They will discuss their work, conduct demonstrations, and have wonderful art available for purchase each day from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

The event is a free, self-guided tour that will allow attendees to explore the creative processes involved in making fine art from its place of origin. See works in progress in a wide array of styles and mediums from jewelry, pottery, weaving, to painting.

One of several artists showing at the Art Colony on North Main is Jack Miller.

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