William Ress:  

I am doing quite well, thanks for asking. I am living in Golden, Colorado these days and am attending the Golden Eagle School of Practical Ministry. It is a Bible-based school that equips people to hear and appropriately share what God is speaking and doing in the world. It's been fun. I have finished everything needed for graduation but there are still some classes that are too much fun to not take while I still have the opportunity. Prior to school I was performing, singing, playing, writing and producing music both secular and worship type music sometimes with my daughter, Paloma. She is now 10 and is a real blast in my life. (Most of the time.) Music was a part-time passion while I was still living in Minnesota. I had produced a few albums at Prince's Paisley Park Studios. Right out of collge I had a motion picture production company where my collegues and I produced documentary films. During this time I was living in a commune in northern Minnesota. I wasn't writing much music at that time but I was working as a fine artist, painting and photography were the two areas I concentrated upon. I was struggling with my artistic vision (that sounds "hoity toity" doesn't it). Unable to seperate the figure from the field because the forests of northern Minnesota seemed too confining. In '79 I moved to a loft two blocks off Hennepin Avenue by Berman Buckskin and the downtown post office. What a shock! One night feeling lonely, I thought I would hit the bars along Hennepin Ave. That night I discovered why "The Gay Nineties" bar was named that. After being hit on by a couple of old "dudes" I got back to my loft as quick as I could. When I finally found work after my move out of the northwoods, it was in an inner city nursing home. I was hired as the secretary to the director of nursing services. It was a great place for me to be. The first film I had made was at "Ah Gwah Ching" State Psyciatric & Geriatric Home in Walker, Minnesota. So my working at the nursing home was fun. Five of us shared an office on the fourth floor where the "confused," today we call them Alzhiemer patients or residents lived. I had 20 girlfriends on that floor. All the old ladies loved me. One woman, Irene Howie, would take my arm as I walked down the hall, announcing to everyone, "This is my boy firend, this is my boyfriend." It was a great job. While working there I discovered that 90% of the men working there were gay and about half the women were lesbians. Being straight I didn't exactly fit in, but that didn't matter. We all loved the work. I have always thought many of the employees, including myself, worked in healthcare as a penance for lifestyle choices, divorce issues, or even mothering issues. Most of the staff were emotionally and/or psychologically messed up, and we worked there because even if we couldn't fix our own lives or if we weren't accepted by our families; we could do good things to take care of these older folks and they accepted and loved us unconditionally. Sadly, most of my gay friends from that time in my life are all dead now. I have fond memories of going to "The Gay Nineties" with both my gay and lesbian friends, as well as my straight girl firends after work and dancing up a storm. It was the '80s and drugs, disco, poppers and coke were rampart as we moved to the heavy beats of LipSync, Prince, The Tyme and Donna Summer, to name a few. Another exciting venue I liked to hit in downtown Minneapolis was First Avenue, the old bus depot. I saw the Ramones, Prince, The Pretenders, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Devo, even Bob Dylan all performed there. Musically and artistically, it was an exciting time that I'll never forget. I had several shows of my paintings and photographs at galleries around the area, and I began writing, as well. I was writing regularly for several area newspapers and began having my poetry published in a variety of magazines, journals and anthologies. I was firing on all cylinders and having a ball. For a variety of reasons I moved from Minnesota to the southwest. My then wife had spent ...Expand for more