Background
Nickels, Thom Francis was born on October 12, 1947 in Darby, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Thomas Clavey Nickels and Teresa Marie Muldoon.
(Philadelphia is a city of Colonial and ghostly architectu...)
Philadelphia is a city of Colonial and ghostly architecture with narrow historic streets that open up onto vistas of bold, towering skyscrapers. It is a city of Greek Revival banks, Italian Renaissance, and Second Empire buildings, a city of Beaux-Arts hotels, Byzantine and Gothic churches, and International-style high-rises. A hybrid of gritty Chicago and pristine Boston, Philadelphia stands alone, an aristocrat in bib overalls, as a livable, intimate city of neighborhoods and luxurious townhouses, of hidden treasures and spectacular surprises. Philadelphia Architecture, a walk through Philadelphia streets past and present, highlights the richness and diversity of the city's architectural history.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738537985/?tag=2022091-20
(Billy Goodwin, the young writer in "The Tropic of Libra,"...)
Billy Goodwin, the young writer in "The Tropic of Libra," lives with his lover Mark in a third-floor apartment in the "wrong" section of Philadelphia's Germantown section. It's the late 1970s and Billy, a struggling novelist, begins a diary to help him make sense out of life and a relationship that is spinning out of control. When Mark ends their six-year relationship, Billy scowers the city for a new partner. He discovers Anthony, the meth-addicted bisexual drug lord and Italian stallion. Soon after he invites Anthony to share his apartment, an Inferno opens as Anthony's friends—crack heads, pushers and prostitutes-- turn the place into a twenty-four hour ‘needle' crash pad. Billy's diary is his only consolation as Anthony unleashes torrents of domestic horrors. Billy, now a prisoner of a sociopath, realizes he must escape to a downtown apartment house. When his escape is complete, he writes about the men he meets in an attempt to replace Mark—musicians, straight trade boys from small Pennsylvania towns, a suburban sadist, businessmen, strangers encountered in streets, bars and adult movie houses. In the end they all fail to make the grade except one—Francis, a working class Irish boy as desperate to find love as Billy. Francis and Billy's paths cross at a city intersection late one night, but before this happens the diary is privy to an army of boyfriend wannabes as well a parade of astrologers and gypsy psychics, most of them con artists, who attempt to guide Billy though the human love minefield. Only two psychics, the buxom Dana Morgan and the gay Bishop John, a mystic from Baltimore, exert positive influences. Before the meeting of Francis, Billy, determined to find a partner at whatever cost, goes back to the life he wants to leave behind whenever love disappoints—the sordid peep show and adult movie house circuit where he finds danger and sexual satisfaction. Life in downtown Philadelphia, Billy's struggles as a writer, his encounters with the eccentrics and oddballs in his hi- rise apartment building, the coming of AIDS—through all of these experiences Billy's one consolation is knowing that-- as a writer-- he must, "experience everything." That "everything" becomes the "building" of the diary that he now sees as almost having a separate life, as if he were describing the exploits of a character in fiction. The diary emboldens him to take chances, with men, with love, with his family, and especially with Francis, the boy who also has an 11th hour "secret."
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1891855298/?tag=2022091-20
(Manayunk, the Native American word for "place where we dr...)
Manayunk, the Native American word for "place where we drink," was first explored by Dutch and English surveyors in the late seventeenth century. These early explorers found the area, which expands upward from the banks of the Schuylkill River, to be quite fascinating. In later years, Manayunk's rolling hills, slanting lawns, and clusters of houses, mills, and church spires stood out and made the neighborhood a unique section of Philadelphia, reminiscent of Italy or southern France. Manayunk explores the growth of the region from a river town with a population of sixty to its rise as "the Manchester of America," akin to the British town of the same name. A manufacturing mecca noted for its mills along its immigrant-dug canal, Manayunk has an indomitable spirit that helped the town triumph over floods and the Depression of 1929. A place of fascinating oddities, one of the first buildings in Manayunk was a gin mill. Manayunk looks at the building of the grand canal, which in 1825 was filled with arks and square-toed flat-bottomed boats. In the summer, the canal became a roughshod rendition of Venice, with its long boats pointed at both ends carrying grains and produce while being poled up the canal by Philadelphia gondoliers. Also illustrated is the construction of the elevated Reading Railroad line and the disarray this engineering feat brought to the town. Notable citizens, such as Capt. John Towers ("the Father of Manayunk"), members of the Levering family, Samuel Streeper Keely, Sevill Schofield, James Milligan, and William B. Nickels, are also profiled.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738505110/?tag=2022091-20
(The photographs in this calendar were selected from Phila...)
The photographs in this calendar were selected from Philadelphia Architecture. Philadelphia is a city of Colonial and ghostly architecture with narrow historic streets that open up onto vistas of bold, towering skyscrapers. It is a city of Greek Revival banks, Italian Renaissance, and Second Empire buildings, a city of Beaux-Arts hotels, Byzantine and Gothic churches, and International-style high-rises. A hybrid of gritty Chicago and pristine Boston, Philadelphia stands alone, an aristocrat in bib overalls, as a livable, intimate city of neighborhoods and luxurious townhouses, of hidden treasures and spectacular surprises. Philadelphia Architecture, a walk through Philadelphia streets past and present, highlights the richness and diversity of the city’s architectural history. Thom Nickels is a journalist, poet, and author of eight books, including Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia and Manayunk. The lifelong Philadelphia resident is a contributing editor for the Weekly Press and is the architecture writer for the Philadelphia Bulletin. He won the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Award for architectural journalism.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439600066/?tag=2022091-20
(The diverse landscape of gay and lesbian Philadelphia is ...)
The diverse landscape of gay and lesbian Philadelphia is a story of highs and lows. From rustic post-Civil War days when Camden poet Walt Whitman crossed the Delaware River on a ferry or caroused Market Street "eyeing" the grocery boys, to the beginnings of ACT UP more than one hundred years later, the gay and lesbian community in Philadelphia has never lost its flair for the dramatic. Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia is a historical look at the neighborhoods, events, and people that have been a part of this community. The 1920s saw the birth of private dance bars on Rittenhouse Square. It was a time when drag shows in straight bars were the order of the day, as was the presence of men in drag during the annual Mummer's Parade on New Year's Day. The pre-Civil Rights era, when segregation was the status quo, saw the proliferation of African American house parties in neighborhoods such as North Philadelphia, where black gays and lesbians formed a community. During the 1950s and 1960s, Rittenhouse Square was the site of informal public gatherings. These gatherings of friends and strangers helped set the stage for the Annual Reminder, the first public protest in support of "homosexual equal rights," which took place every Fourth of July at Independence Hall. Throughout all of these eras, members of the community faced challenges, celebrated victories, and continued to try to blend their lives with those of their gay and straight neighbors.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0738510009/?tag=2022091-20
Nickels, Thom Francis was born on October 12, 1947 in Darby, Pennsylvania, United States. Son of Thomas Clavey Nickels and Teresa Marie Muldoon.
Diploma in journalism, Charles Morris Price School Advt.and Journalism, 1967. Bachelor, Eastern College, Batl., 1968.
Station editor television Guide, 1978. Editor Society Hill Towers Newsletter, Philadelphia, 1981—1983. Gay issues columnist Welcomat, 1983—1994.
Resume and grant writer, 1990—1994. Commetary columnist Philadelphia Inquirer, 1998—2001. Newspaper columnist, feature writer Weekly/University City Press, since 1999.
Book reviewer Lambda Books Report, Washington, since 1996, Gay and Lesbian Review, Boston, since 1999. Commentary columnist Philadelphia Daily News, 1999—2001. Feature writer Philly Style Magazine, Philadelphia, 2000—2001.
Weekly issues columnist PrideVisionTV, Toronto, Quebec, Canada, since 2001. Freelance arts and entertainment writer, reviewer Travel Professionals International Metro, Philadelphia, since 2001. Columnist ICON Magazine.
(Billy Goodwin, the young writer in "The Tropic of Libra,"...)
(Manayunk, the Native American word for "place where we dr...)
(Philadelphia is a city of Colonial and ghostly architectu...)
(The diverse landscape of gay and lesbian Philadelphia is ...)
(The photographs in this calendar were selected from Phila...)
(Book by Nickels, Thom)
Volunteer Lyndon B. Johnsom Presidential Campaign, West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1964. Founder Coalition Philadelphia Art, 1998—2002. Member Boston Gay Liberation Front, 1968—1969.
Member of National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association.