This episode, I'll be reading the sixth chapter, To the West Coast, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my friend Ham & Eggs who was here with me on the Connecticut shoreline. To the West Coast documents a period of time, roughly 2011 to 2015, when I saw little if any of Mack and would only occasionally interact with him over the phone. Slowly though we began building up what felt like, perhaps for the first time, a legitimate friendship. Mack had moved to San Francisco and seemed like a healthy new version of himself. I moved my mom and mentally ill brother out of increasingly dystopian Florida with me to LA. The San Remo incident behind us, Mack was proving again to be a steady and supportive friend during a heady but creatively productive time in my life. In addition to the reading, Ham & Egg, who I met dance-floor tangential when I was twenty-one at Avalon nightclub in Boston, discuss writing poorly reviewed gay porn, Airbnb near-death experiences and disgruntled Brooklyn flatmates. A super-relaxed conversation on what was a bitter cold New England day. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings. If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299. Thanks very much. And thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.

This episode, I'll be reading the fifth chapter, Shark, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my friend Marc in St. Francisville, Louisiana.Shark details a time in my life when everything fell apart: my parents were in a car accident, my estranged brother re-entered my life after a fifteen year absence and our father died. Meanwhile, Mack was going through his own set of traumas halfway around the world. We were there for each in ways unmatched since we'd first met in 1999. That deep sense of camaraderie and support came to a sudden halt though one sultry August night in 2011 in a flat at the storied San Remo on Central Park West in NYC. In addition to discussing the reading, Marc and I talk about poppers, decorating Fifth Avenue townhouses and tornado preparedness, or lack thereof. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings. If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299. Thanks very much. And thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.

This episode, I'll be reading the fourth chapter, Golden Path, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my friends Paulina and Mr. M. in Manhattan.Golden Path is about romantic reckonings; about freeing oneself from obsession and finding one’s footing. It was about a time (the late-aughts) when I had to reconsider, with the help of Nature and kismet forces, my relationships with both Mack and Evan in order to move on. Paulina is one of the few friends of mine who actually ever met Mack. She talks about her impressions of him as we reminisce about the adventures we’ve had together out in the world. Mr. M. offers insight regarding the perils of artists dating artists. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings. If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299. Thanks very much. And thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.

This episode, I'll be reading the third chapter, Eye in the Sky, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my friend Marianna in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I met Marianna in 2015 at a gathering in Sagaponack, NY. Eye In the Sky is about that moment in time (the mid-aughts) when technology was changing the way New Yorkers saw one another, the way they dated and the way they hooked-up. As Mack entered into an existential crisis connected to his life in the city, I began seeing an artist from the East End of Long Island named Evan, the first guy I ever met online. As things grew more serious with Evan, Mack took note and for the first time seemed to want more from me than I had to offer. In addition to the reading and discussion, Marianna and I talk about 90s nightlife, especially in Miami where she grew up and would sneak out of her parents' home to go clubbing. We also talk about the state of music today and how dating has changed so drastically and often ridiculously since the advent of the iPhone and apps. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings.If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299.Thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.

This episode, I'll be reading the second chapter, Sick Times, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my friend Zech in Bushwick, Brooklyn. I met Zech back in 2016 while visiting a close family friend's lake cottage in Upstate, New York. Sick Times is about Mack coming back into my life in 2004, nearly five years after our last terse communication. It was when I began to put Mack on a pedestal while also engaging with him on my own terms, seeing him as both role model, confidant and artistic equal. In addition to the reading and discussion, Zech and I talk about his getting fired for being gay, about coming out in the era of apps, and how power dynamics play out in certain gay male relationships. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings.If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299.Thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.

This episode,  I read the preface and first chapter, Bicep, from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to my beloved friend, Fabiano. I met Fabiano on the sidewalk in Rio de Janeiro back in 1999 at the beginning of an extended South American backpacking trip. The episode essentially comes in two parts,  and two hemispheres. The first half, recorded in November of 2022 while Fabiano was in his home country of Brazil, consists of the reading and a brief discussion. The second half, recorded in May of 2023 while Fabiano was at his full-time home in Montreal,  includes an in-depth conversation about his coming to terms with being gay while growing up in one of the most sexually-liberated cities in the world, Rio, then thawing out along with the rest of Brazil from decades of military rule. The preface and Bicep are all about how I came to know Mack, a handsome and beguiling musician met earlier in '99 at a gay bar in the East Village of New York City. It's about those first passionate but often complicated months of getting to know a potential love interest, trying to figure out what is and isn't real. You can find out more about F*ck Bubble and my other creative projects on my website,  http://brianpearson.net/writings. If you'd like to support the podcast and the writing, please check out my Patreon page, https://www.patreon.com/user?u=80977299. Thanks for listening to F*ck Bubble.  

Each episode I’ll be reading a new chapter from my non-fiction manuscript, F*ck Bubble, to a close friend. F*ck Bubble is the near twenty year true story of a 1999 hookup in New York City that morphed into a deep but often turbulent friendship – one that got even more complicated after an unlikely encounter in the Utah desert in 2016. It’s a story of serendipity and how revisiting the past can sometimes set oneself free in the present. Weaving the personal with the historical, F*ck Bubble also documents certain aspects of LGBTQ+ life from the nineties till now. With 19 friends from Scotland to LA, Brooklyn to Brazil, I’ll discuss the reading, talk about how we met and how life can change with a blink of an eye, a twist of the head. Intended for a mature audience, listener discretion is advised.