My Brother Exposed

I've exposed myself now its time to expose my family. Last Christmas Brad and I went to Brooklyn to spend the holidays with my family there. My mother is a teacher at a high school in Brooklyn. During the school year my dad and her live in the garden level apartment of an old brownstone in the historic Ft. Greene district of brooklyn owned by my brother and his partner. When school lets out they escape to Scottsdale, AZ for the summer. Trust me the dryness is much better than the humidity.

My brother, Paul, and his partner, Allen, have been together since I was about six or seven years old. That would make them at about 18 years now. Take that Joe.My.God.! My brother is a lighting designer and his partner is a set designer. They have worked on numerous broadway plays, NYC Operas, soap operas (the few that are still filmed in NYC), and commercial displays.

Because they do production design they both have knowledge of how things ought to look according to period. When they bought their house in 1998 it was a wreck. The stairway was falling off the wall. The kitchen was tiny and bathed in the tasteless elegance of the 1970s and many of the home's historic features had been covered up by poor design trends. They are both extremely talented individuals and they now live in a world of unparalleled beauty.



Although their house is not what I would call comfortable or my taste whenever I visit I am in awe of how amazingly elegant their home is. This is my favorite room in their home, the dining room. The mirror is a restored antique from the ante bellum period of which the home was built. Let me just say that everything in this room is of the period that the home was built. The fireplace was made to their specifications. The table and chairs they acquired at an auction in Georgia and were from a plantation home. The wallpaper was custom designed by a friend of Allen's who does wallpaper for theatrical productions. The chandelier was a piece of junk when they bought it but they had it professionally restored.

Wait there's more. Nothing in their house is fake. The garland that you see on the fireplace and the chandelier for the holidays is a string of cranberries that Allen made. The oranges that you see in a crystal bowl on the top of mantle were also hand studded with cloves by Allen. All of the pine garlands that you see are also real. They have such an acute attention to detail that they make Martha Stewart look like a country yokel.

Here are some other photos of their kitchen which is equally impressive. Paul is on the left, Allen in the middle, and my mom is making fresh cranberry sauce. Jellied cranberry sauce in the shape of a can in my brother's kitchen?! NEVER!! Did I mention that he's an accomplished chef as well? They have all the latest modern amenities but have managed to hide them very well.


Being that my brother is so many years older than I am (forty years older than me) I don't have that much of a relationship with him. The year that I came out to my family I spent the holidays in NY, the house had not been finished this much yet. When my dad picked me up from the airport he told me that my brother was upset that I had never spoke to him about my sexuality or my relationship with Brad. I guess he wanted to be there for me but I honestly never knew. That year he and I trimmed his tree together and I was nervous as hell. I was nervous firstly because I wanted to be a good assistant with the decorating. Secondly I was nervous because I so desperately wanted to say something to him about Brad, about my sexuality, and how I was touched that he cared. I didn't say a word to him and we trimmed the tree in utter silence.

Last year he gave Brad and I tickets to see Twelve Angry Men on broadway. He and Allen were the head lighting and set designers respectively. The production had a star studded cast and the sets and lighting were phenomenal. I was so proud of the both of them that I was anxious to see them the next morning after the show and tell them how beautiful their work was. I did but I couldn't possibly express in words to him that I was so proud of his and Allen's work that it brought me to the verge of tears.

My brother is a tempermental provincial New Yorker who thinks that everything outside the city is the hinterlands. My mother is always getting on my case to call him and to have more of a relationship with him. I think in the coming year I'm going to make an attempt to do just that.

I didn't intend this post to be so long or go in the direction it did.