Planet Homo

O Happy Day

New Editor, Old Magazine

Have you ever been at a newsstand among the millions of magazine titles and wondered, who buys them? Frankly, I don't know of anyone who reads Instinct, Out, The Advocate or Attitude for matter. Visits to their websites will satisfy any curiosity, which is usually brief in that nothing has changed.
Today we learn that the British gay magazine, Attitude has a new editor with the musical name of Matthew Todd, or Mr Todd.
The poor magazine has been through the ringer. The magazine was purchased a few years ago by a company that owns Asian Babes and Women's Fitness. It has made appearances on the newsstand only to disappear and bring speculation to those bloggers who care about such media matters.
So who reads these magazines? Instinct, years back was funny, arch and biting. They tasted success and quickly assimilated into the culture of gay magazines that bows to the advertiser (Calvin Klein being the most courted and most indifferent).
Out? Maybe twenty years ago, and seven, nine editors back. I can say this now: Brendan Lemon was the most boring editor on the face of the planet, Planet Out or elsewhere.
Our old alma matter, Genre? If you like that Fox Show Red Eye you will like this editor. They are the same person. If one occasionally wondered why lesbians were captains for what could be perceived as gay mens publications, then why would anyone be attracted to a coke-snorting "bisexual" drama queen? Actually, he was not the first. The fact is, some of those lesbian editors were brilliant.
There was at one time a glamor about being the editor of a gay magazine. With circulations circling the 120,000 readers a month (and that is the best it can get), magazines like Genre had/ have a circulation about 60-80,000 readers. Thats a fraction of the universe when you consider a former editor like Andy Towle gets nearly 700,000 readers a day. You do the math.
They are quaint. Perfect for bathrooms and airplanes, swimming pools and lazy summer days. We, and I certainly would miss them if they disappeared. Some will.
As for Mr Todd? Good luck Mr. Todd...do something brilliant, outrageous and compelling, as only a gay European magazine can.

The Ultimate Gay Bar

The Bunny Goes Gay

Playboy Enterprises is planning a move into the gay market with softcore cable video-on-demand it was reported earlier this week.

With a working title of Gay Targeted VOD Package Service, Playboy plans to initially offer Time Warner Cable subscribers 20 hours of gay male programming. The service is slated to begin operating next month.

Although the Playboy brand has been linked with heterosexual men’s entertainment since its magazine's first issue in 1953, the company now describes itself more generally as "valuing sexiness and style" and is seeking more ways to diversify and boost its revenue.

Earlier this week Playboy said revenue dropped 8 percent compared to year-ago quarterly figures, with domestic TV revenue down by $2.6 million in the first three months of the year.

PH learned of the move into the U.S. gay market in a letter dated March 31 to Time Warner Cable Vice President Melinda Witmer from Playboy President Bob Meyers, which added an amendment to its affiliation with the nation’s largest cable company.

According to the memo obtained by PH, Playboy will offer “professionally produced adult programs selected by Playboy, targeted to the male gay community, edited to a standard no more explicit” than softcore pornography.

Each program in the package “may depict erect genitalia, male-on-male fellatio and simulated or implied sexual intercourse.”

But, according to the memo, content “shall not depict actual anal penetration, licking or anal sexual play of any kind.”

Male ejaculation and forced bondage also will be off limits.

VH1 SEX: THE REVOLUTION

The series on VH 1 if nothing else shows that American culture has radically changed in the last fifty years. It is remarkable to think that there was a time when interracial marriage was against the law, gay men were arrested simply for being interested in another man, and masturbation was considered a sin.

Just Odd

This is apparently an ad for Play Station 3 for European audiences. Europe as we all know is progressive. I have even written about this concept in the new Folio magazine. But this ad is just confusing. Is that a thumb?

Techblorge.com seems to think its real also:

The agency responsible for the ad is the Vienna chapter of TBWA Worldwide, says Copyranter and Gawker. The agency is based in New York City but operates globally in 75 countries.

Upon first sight, we were thoroughly confused, “that boy has a thumb for a penis,” we thought. Revisiting the ad for a second inspection, we finally understand (at least we think we do) what they’re getting at, but we don’t approve. We really don’t approve.

Our hypothesis says the ad means one of two things: men are losing their masculinity to video games or Sony is saying masculinity is found in the Playstation 3. Considering that Sony is a video games company, it’s likely saying the latter.

Robert Rauschenberg

One of the art world's greatest painters has died. Robert Rauschenberg, who along with Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns (with whom he had a long relationship) was a major player in the Pop Art movement of the 60s. Read the entire obituary here.

Like the Cover

Joel Derfner has a new book.

When a man shoves cash into his underwear, he's no longer the boy who was "asked to leave the floor during the fast skate at the roller rink at Randy Cohen's tenth birthday party," but a horny, sweaty man who is desired by other horny, sweaty men. In many ways, the book is about his search for acceptance, often of the physical variety (even though he's in a relationship, he can't help giving the fish eye to any guy taking away his crushes). A typical Derfnerism: "I just wanted to reinvent myself again, but with anal sex instead of Snickers."

A review here.

A Member of the Wedding

I think we can safely say that Gay people have joined American television in a big way. Last weeks Grey's Anatomy featured a very hot kiss between two American soldiers and last night in what is being billed as the first gay marriage on network television, Kevin and Scotty got married on the season finale of ABC’s Brothers and Sisters. It is remarkable. The “marriage” was handled with great dignity and respect by the ever-dramatic Walker family. Clearly ABC has become every gay man and woman’s best friend. So it is about the acting that one can make comments. There is so little spark between these two men that it is sometimes uncomfortable to watch them kiss. While on Grey's Anatomy the scene lasted only moments, there was something very passionate and real about these two men kissing. This is quibbling over details to be sure. The mere fact that two men are are making on national TV should be regarded as the high benchmark that is. Brothers and Sisters, which is written and produced by gay men, is an extraordinary leap into the American reality.

Life After Skin

Perez Predicts, Again...

He scored an Emmy nomination for his work as gay teen Luke Snyder on the daytime soap As the World Turns, but according to gossip columnist Perez Hilton, actor Van Hansis isn’t just playing gay on TV.   

Though gay publications have been covering Hansis’ groundbreaking work on the daytime drama for months, his sexuality has never been a topic of discussion.

Now, Hilton has linked the 26-year-old actor to Broadway performer Tyler Hanes, posting photos of the look-alike actors and saying he has on good authority the two are dating.   

The announcement came out of left field—there has been next to no speculation on Hansis’ sexuality in the media.   

A huge supporter of the GLAAD Media Awards and media efforts to shine a light on the storyline, Hansis scored an Emmy nod for Outstanding Achievement by a Younger Actor in a Daytime Drama just last week.

PS: that's an atrocious kiss.

 

Drinking Again

The Ellie Awards

NEW YORK, May 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) bestowed the industry's most prestigious editorial honors tonight at the 43rd annual National Magazine Awards. The black-tie gala at New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center, Frederick P. Rose Hall, gathered more than 1,000 editors, publishers, industry professionals and guests to celebrate 25 winners across 20 categories. Named after the Alexander Calder Stabile "Elephant," the 2008 "Ellies" drew a record-setting 1,964 entries from 333 print and online magazines.

The 2008 National Magazine Award winners are: 

 

• National Geographic for General Excellence (over 2,000,000 circulation)
• The New Yorker for General Excellence (1,000,000 to 2,000,000 circulation)
• GQ for General Excellence (500,000 to 1,000,000 circulation)
• Backpacker for General Excellence (250,000 to 500,000 circulation)
• Mother Jones for General Excellence (100,000 to 250,000 circulation)
• Print for General Excellence (under 100,000 circulation)
• Popular Mechanics for Personal Service
• New York for Leisure Interests
• National Geographic for Reporting
• The Nation for Public Interest
• Atlanta for Feature Writing
• Vanity Fair for Profile Writing
• New Letters for Essays
• Rolling Stone for Columns and Commentary
• The Atlantic for Reviews and Criticism
• Conde Nast Portfolio for Magazine Section
• The Virginia Quarterly Review for Single-topic Issue
• Wired for Design
• Gourmet for Photography
• National Geographic for Photojournalism
• Vanity Fair for Photo Portfolio
• Harper's Magazine for Fiction
• RunnersWorld.com for General Excellence Online 
• BusinessWeek.com for Personal Service Online
• Bicycling.com for Interactive Feature

The Newly Wed Game

The New York Times Magazine investigated the state of young gay men getting married in the newest issue. Author Benoit Denizet-Lewis reports: Young gay men today are coming of age in a different time from the baby-boom generation of gays and lesbians who fashioned modern gay culture in this country — or even from me, a gay man in his early 30s. While being a gay teenager today can still be difficult and potentially dangerous (particularly for those who live in noncosmopolitan areas or are considered effeminate), gay teenagers are coming out earlier and are increasingly able to experience their gay adolescence. That, in turn, has made them more likely to feel normal. Many young gay men don’t see themselves as all that different from their heterosexual peers, and many profess to want what they’ve long seen espoused by mainstream American culture: a long-term relationship and the chance to start a family. Read the entire article here.