Wasn't Tomorrow Wonderful? A Memoir by Kenneth M. Walsh

Author:Kenneth M. Walsh [Walsh, Kenneth M.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Augusten Burroughs, Humor, Memoir, Gay
Publisher: Riverdale Avenue Books/Magnus Books
Published: 2014-03-05T05:00:00+00:00

dead ringers society

I was coming out of Café D’Etoile on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood one night when I was first asked the question: “Are you that guy from Dead Poets Society?”

The inquisitor was a handsome dark-haired guy in his mid-twenties who smiled as he stopped me, his two friends looking on from their table, clearly impressed by his boldness.

The movie had come out the previous summer, and while it was a smash, none of the young actors in it were household names yet, so I wasn’t even sure which guy he was referring to. I had seen the film and developed an instant crush on Robert Sean Leonard, but then later realized people weren’t talking about him when my friend Mark’s sister Lois mentioned to him that the “shy kid” in the Dead Poets Society looked “just like Kenny.” This, of course, turned out to be Ethan Hawke. That I managed to be disappointed by the comparison—Robert Sean Leonard was the hot one!—would come back to haunt me, as I learned that your ego is the thing that bruises easiest as you grow older.

After that first incident in the restaurant, the whole thing kind of exploded. I was living in Los Angeles now, and tourists would come up to me all the time and ask me if I had been in Dead Poets Society. Even when I said no, sometimes young girls would ask for photos. I would hear whispers at every party I went to. Guys would be pointing at me in bars.

It was around this time I first met Sean, when he tried to pick me up outside the Greenwich Village Pizzeria in West Hollywood. I had barely been in California a month when Sean pulled me into the restaurant’s restroom and shared a bump of coke with me, then asked me if I wanted to come home with him. I was intrigued—his blond hair and angular face were almost as eye-grabbing as his muscular physique and fully-inked arms—but I was with a friend visiting from back home, so I just laughed his invitation off wondering who this tattooed love boy thought he was to be so forward. I would later find out.

Truth be told, I was scared of him. But as the months went by, we’d keep running into each other at bars and parties, and eventually I had to admit that I wanted to know what he was all about. I’d never met anyone like him before—so quiet and mysterious—like James Dean’s older brother on steroids. I was completely besotted.

I experienced many of my “firsts” with Sean—my first ride on the back of a Harley being one of the safer activities he introduced me to. I had stayed overnight at his converted-garage apartment near the Beverly Center, and he loaned me a Mr. Bubble T-shirt to wear before we headed out on the road the following afternoon. (That must have been a sight.) Everywhere we’d go there was a buzz surrounding Sean, and people rarely thought I was “somebody” in his presence.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.