The "lights" of the season

Due to circumstances beyond my control, It's Hanukkah and my menorah, and candles are lost in a wall of boxes in the very cold basement, I resolved to either do without or go buy one at party supermarket for $5. Then after working late last Friday, an email was waiting for me when I got home, from and old friend back east wishing me a happy Hanukkah. It was then, I decided that my "lights" this year, are going to be people. People who make my heart 'light', make me 'light' when they come into the room. They make my load 'light' with encouragement and humor. These are candles I prey never burn out because they light of friendship, respect, care and love. I wish everyone a happy holiday free from over spending, expectations, drama, dogma and embarrassing drunk dialed phone calls.

Mentors..et al..

i had coffee with a friend Sunday morning. The subject of Mentors came up several times. It made me think about how important the process has been to me. How being Mentored has made me a stronger, stable more self reliant member of the community. Everyone thinks it was a sexual experience. More about being naked, both literally and figuratively but safe and secure. intimate Oh! Yes! Sexual, yes, but not in the porn star view most have. but it was a life lesson experience. Less about protocols and what side to wear your keys. More about values, trust, feelings and honesty . Things that are universally important in every relationship M/s, Husband /wife, team mates,
Never being one to allow myself to get too comfortable, i will be taking on some new responsibilities. i hope to contain all drama to polite, private emails and civil coffee meetings (So help me, Miss Manners). However my path takes me, i am truly looking forward to my new adventures serving the community and helping to raise money for the most inspirational Scholars in the world

Unity in the Community

It's amazing how easy it is to be manipulated. How threatened some can be over anothers success. i really believe that i fell to prey to such a plan this week and hope i didn't lose a friend in the process. i guess everyone has their agenda and am always surprised when mine and theirs are not the same, even as we work together for a similar goal.
It's also amazing when you discover just who your friends really are. I have mentioned in earlier posts about being surprised when someone unexpected lends a hand and helps in a very profound way. It's great when things are going your way and everybody likes you, but it's the ones who are still around helping to clean up after the party is over, that are really your friends. i have had a few, i didn't expect, show them selves this week, and for that i am profoundly grateful.

So, there was this meeting...

i thought it was just the 3 of us, but there ended up being 30+ years of history that bantered about the room. Ghosts of the passed on and references to people who now go by another name in another city. People before their reassignment surgery, before Aubrey's Playroom. Seminars Tony DeBlase held and things He demonstrated, the original recipes for Doomed Rabbit cookbook and Michale Young's artwork all told me an amazing tale of a city, before and during the ravages of AIDS. None of my generation is untouched by AIDS, and many of us are still scared by the experience. I read for the first time a vaccine is really in the testing stage. At last!

Northwest leatherSir, joins the Tony DeBlase Scholarship Campaign

So, BIG things are happening on the scholarship front. With the 2010 Northwest LeatherSir, joining forces with the Tony DeBlase team, there was a considerable buzz around the community this weekend. I see His support as a HUGE bonus and know He is going to do a great job and be a big help. Fundraisers are in the works and i am truly excited. It's gratifying to see the community come together and feel real support for a cause i have been a part of since it's inception. There is a lot of work, a lot of fun and a lot of surprises coming up. i can't wait to get started

Once again i would like to ask , if you haven't already, please donate $5 (or more) a month (or week) to the Tony DeBlase scholarship via the Pridefoundation.org. Please notate check or money order, with "Tony DeBlase" so it goes to the right account It's a beer or a cup of coffee, that you would be giving up for a student to have tuition, or books. To me it seems like a good value. Starbucks doesn't need the extra money! Pennies for scholars banks will be popping up soon. Please, even 1 cent will help.

Some say the speech, i gave was brilliant, other say they didn't hear it all, so i have transcribed it below

..."Any questions", He asked

"Sir, Will i look foolish?"

He smiled and shrugged and said "I don't know, that all depends on you"

With that, he shaved my head, for the first time.


That was a big step for me, but just a small particle of who i am.
How do i tell You who i am in 2 minuets or less?
i am my brothers, my mentor
i am Anita Bryant, Jerry Falwell
i am my first love, every broken heart, a haiku in Drummer Magazine
i am a pair of boots that gave me a boner, in the store window
i am a guy, who was sitting at the dinner table the evening my Mentor told us of His plan to start a scholarship fund
i am the guy who was flipping burgers down the street to raise money for the endowment
i am everyone i ever hurt or helped and all that have hurt or helped me.

i am a friend of the The Pride Foundation a worthy organization who, strengthen our community through their network of generosity

Who am i?
i am Corey Krantz
reminding you, the future is in our hands.
Please actively support the Tony DeBlase scholarship fund
(9/5/09)

It would be easy to put the contest stuff back into a box and let it sit for a year till I decide weather or not to enter again or just enjoy the experience and move on. But that isn't my style. Besides I still have the same agenda I did before the contest and see no reason why losing should change that. In reality, I have more time, with less obligations than the winners. So, my plan is to ask everyone I know to join me in donating $5 a month (or more, if possible) to the Pride Foundation. Please add a memo and mention Tony DeBlase so the money gets put in the right account. Remember my analogy about a blade of grass... one doesn't seem very significant, but a bunch of them, can make for a beautiful well manicured lawn.

The scholarship, as it stands, will help students for many years, but it is only 'seed' money, helping to cultivate, but not enough to really give the students the foundation to to thrive. I must tell you that the scholars that apply and receive money from the Tony DeBlase scholarship are an amazing group. Amazing enough, that one old man on the committee was so inspired, that he entered a contest to help raise public awareness and money for the scholarship.