Planet Homo

Exit: 2008

If Valentine's Day were an occasion where one was allowed to be as romantic as possible then surely New Year's is the day when we can unabashedly get sentimental. We look back through that human veil of tears as the calendar pages turn in cinematic splendor as if out of a Douglas Sirk movie.
It was a bipolar year to be sure. We endured a long political campaign that was a nail-bitter until the end. And despite the fact that as the country woke up, finally woke up and did the right thing, we were also reminded that as gay people, as fabulous as we often are, we sit just outside the welcoming table. America is a religious country, a country of full of Joe the Plumbers. Essentially good people, they are gripped by fear of things being different and they have a belief, a mistaken moral belief that we are country ruled under God, and the word from those ancient fictions is that gay is immoral, or at the least the "act" of doing something homosexual.
We have come a long way. The abuse by police throughout this country as depicted in the historical footage in the film, "Milk" shows what once was. And despite the fact that we have gained enormous economic and social power, we still do not have the basic rights afforded every heterosexual in this country, especially the right to marry. We all know that it is simply a matter of time. what the film and the documentary about the life of Harvey Milk clearly showed us is that we need leaders, people who can motivate, articulate and finally produce the desired political gains. The failure of Prop. 8 was as much about the lack of vision on the part of the people producing the commercials and providing the strategy to persuade people as it was the imminent success of the people on the other side of the issue.
For now, we celebrate the mere fact of being alive and living in such interesting times.
Happy New Year.

New Years Scene

Death by Denial: The Curious Case of Christine Maggiore

What if you happen to die of the thing that you spent your life denying? In the case of Christine Maggiore that is exactly what happened. She died Saturday at the age of 52 of AIDS-related causes, a disease she vehemently denied even exists. Christine Maggiore was HIV+ and wrote a book called What if Everything You Thought You Knew About AIDS Was Wrong.  She spent her life convincing HIV+ people not to take their medication, to live life as if they didn’t have the disease and to deny that HIV causes AIDS. Maggiore refused to take drugs when she was pregnant with her daughter and she breast-fed her, despite her disease.  Her daughter died at the age of three from pneumonia exacerbated by untreated AIDS. Her website, aliveandwell.org is a treasure-trove of mysterious explanations as to the causes of AIDS and among the more curious explanations is: "A profound fear of AIDS is enough to cause even people who repeatedly test HIV negative to develop physical symptoms of AIDS. Termed "AIDS-phobia," this condition is characterized by weight loss, wasting, reduced T cell counts and other signs considered indicative of AIDS, and typically follows intimate contact with people who sufferers believe may be HIV positive." And as for AIDS in Africa? Aliveandwell insists that AIDS is not that big of a problem in Africa and most of the diagnosed victims are either lying or deceived by inaccurate tests. It goes on and on with a simplistic and yet extremely harmful approach to disease. At best, this was denial: to have your daughter die of a disease that you willingly ignored must have been difficult. Human remedies are not just curious, they can also be wrong.

Documentary Available for Viewing

http://www.hulu.com/watch/49577/the-times-of-harvey-milk

Prayers for Bobby to Air

In "Prayers for Bobby," Mary Griffith is a devout Christian who raises her children with the conservative teachings of the Presbyterian Church. However, when her son Bobby confides to his older brother he may be gay, life changes for the entire family after Mary learns about his secret. While Bobby's father and siblings slowly come to terms with his homosexuality, Mary believes God can cure him of what she considers his 'sin' and persuades Bobby to pray harder and seek solace in church activities in hopes of changing him. Desperate for his mother's approval, Bobby does what is asked of him, but through it all, the church's apparent disapproval of homosexuality causes him to grow increasingly withdrawn and depressed. Guilty over the pain he is causing Mary, Bobby moves away, yet hopes that some day his mother will accept him. His subsequent depression and self-loathing intensifies as he blames himself for not being the 'perfect' son and is driven to suicide. Faced with their tragedy, Mary begins to question her faith when she receives no answers from her pastor concerning her devastating loss. Through her long and emotional journey, Mary slowly reaches out to the gay community and discovers unexpected support from a very unlikely source. The film is based on the 1995 Leroy Aarons book of the same name.The drama will air on Lifetime on January 24th at 9pm EST.

It's a Wonderful Life!

The Men Behind the Collar

One of the most prolific and successful artists of the Golden Age Illustration, J.C. Leyendecker captivated audiences throughout the first half of the twentieth century. With a signature style that possessed great warmth and imagination, Leyendecker is perhaps best known for his creation of the archetype of the fashionable male with his advertisements for Arrow Collar in the 1910s through the 1920s. These images sold to an eager public the idea of a glamorous lifestyle, the bedrock upon which modern advertising was built. He also was the creator instantly recognizable icons, such as Santa Claus (conceived as a portly, white-haired man clad in red velvet), that are to this day an integral part of the lexicon of society.An important influence on Norman Rockwell, Leyendecker was commissioned to paint more "Saturday Evening Post" covers than any other artist. Leyendecker lived for much of his adult life with Charles Beach, on whom the stylish men in his artwork was modelled, and while he kept his homosexuality hidden from public scrutiny, he nevertheless gathered a strong following in the gay-interest community. In the first book about the artist in more than twenty years, J.C. Leyendecker features his masterworks, rare paintings and other artwork, including the 322 covers he did for the "Post", as well as other magazines, including Harper's and Collier's. Accompained by a revealing text that delves into both his artistic evolution and personal life, J.C. Leyendecker restores his rightful position in the pantheon of great American illustrators. The new book is available here.

Pillow Talk

From that distant year 1996 the provocative film "Pillowbook" from director Peter Greenaway who also directed "The Cook, the Thief, his Wife and her Lover". If you want to see Ewan McGregor completely naked for extended periods of time, now's your chance. The "Pillowbook" concerns the character Nagiko, played by the sexy Vivian Wu. Growing up Nagiko has fond memories of her father who was an author. He would paint calligraphy on her face. She also enjoyed the pillow-book that her aunt had read to her with it's sensual stories. One memory that troubles her was her father being blackmailed for sexual favors by a gay publisher. He did this to get his stories published. All grown up Nagiko develops a fetish to be written on with ink. She goes through many men, but has no luck. She also has the desire to create her own pillow-book of lists and obsessions. Then she meets Jerome (Ewan Mcgregor) an English translator, it's a strange love at first sight. The only problem is that he has sloppy handwriting. So Jerome offer's himself to be written on like the pages of the book. Little does she know that Jerome is bisexual and having relations with the same publisher that had blackmailed her father growing up. When she realizes this she uses Jerome to seduce the publisher with his written body. She wants to get her book published. Nagiko narrates the film saying, "If I couldn't seduce the publisher, I could at least seduce the publisher's lover." As the film moves along it becomes more strange and surreal, with frame within frame of words and images. The screen breaks down into boxes and into lists at points. It's easy to get confused during your first viewing, like Greenaway's other films. "The Pillowbook" is not your typical erotic film, it's also a story of betrayal and vengeance.

Take a Vow

In case you missed it: NY Times ran a story about two men and a wedding. Read.

Furniture for a new year

As we head back to the future you can get comfortable with the modern Eero Aarnio Globe Ball chair. Designed in 1966 by Eero Aarnio, this chair can be seen in modern museums and countless videos and film. It can also be yours—regencyshop.com has this and many other contemporary furniture pieces at extremely reasonable prices.

Political Debate: Rick Warren

SAG AWARDS ANNOUNCED

They're out! The SAG Awards that is... The Screen Actors Guilds nominees this year go to:

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actor are Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor"), Frank Langella ("Frost/Nixon"), Sean Penn ("Milk"), Brad Pitt ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") and Mickey Rourke ("The Wrestler"). Rourke has the buzz.

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actress are Anne Hathaway ("Rachel Getting Married"), Angelina Jolie ("Changeling"), Melissa Leo ("Frozen River"), Meryl Streep ("Doubt") and Kate Winslet ("Revolutionary Road"). Streep, no doubt.

The nominees for outstanding performance by a supporting actor are Josh Brolin ("Milk"), Robert Downey Jr. ("Tropic Thunder"), Philip Seymour Hoffman ("Doubt"), Heath Ledger ("The Dark Knight") and Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire"). Ledger, finally.

The nominees for outstanding performance by a supporting actress are Amy Adams ("Doubt"), Penelope Cruz ("Vicky Cristina Barcelona"), Viola Davis ("Doubt"), Taraji P. Henson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") and Kate Winslet ("The Reader").

The nominees for outstanding performance by a TV drama series ensemble are "Boston Legal," "The Closer," "Dexter," "House" and "Mad Men." Mad Men!

The nominees for outstanding performance by a TV comedy series ensemble are "30 Rock," "Desperate Housewives," "Entourage," "The Office" and "Weeds." 30 Rock

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actor in a TV drama are Michael C. Hall ("Dexter"), Jon Hamm ("Mad Men"), Hugh Laurie ("House"), William Shatner ("Boston Legal") and James Spader ("Boston Legal"). Great actors all, though Jon Hamm delivers a quiet desperation that is unique for television.

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actress in a TV drama are Sally Field ("Brothers and Sisters"), Mariska Hargitay ("Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"), Holly Hunter ("Saving Grace"), Elisabeth Moss ("Mad Men") and Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer").

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actor in a TV comedy are Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock"), Steve Carell ("The Office"), David Duchovny ("Californication"), Jeremy Piven ("Entourage") and Tony Shalhoub ("Monk"). WTF? Californification is a comedy? It's not. It clearly is based on a an imagined life of writer Charles Bukowski and it is anything but comedic. Depressing, manic, hopelessly and frankly painfully heterosexual, if this were a series about a gay man, he would be called a whore., given a sexual disease and a funeral.

The nominees for outstanding performance by a lead actress in a TV comedy are Christina Applegate ("Samantha Who?"), America Ferrera ("Ugly Betty"), Tina Fey ("30 Rock") Mary-Louise Parker ("Weeds") and Tracey Ullman ("Tracey Ullman's State of the Union"). Tiny Fey, all the way.

The nominees for outstanding performance by an actor in a TV movie or miniseries are Ralph Fiennes ("Bernard and Doris"), Paul Giamatti ("John Adams"), Kevin Spacey ("Recount"), Keifer Sutherland ("24: Redemption") and Tom Wilkinson ("John Adams"). Paul Giamatti gave new life to an old legend.

The nominees for outstanding performance by an actress in a TV movie or miniseries are Laura Dern ("Recount"), Laura Linney ("John Adams"), Shirley MacLaine "Coco Chanel"), Phylicia Rashad ("A Raisin in the Sun") and Susan Sarandon ("Bernard and Doris").

Legendary Creature: Jobriath

There lived a man named Jobriath. He was in the original cast of Hair in the 60s and went on to become a recording artist. That failed miserably. He would reemerge years later as crooner Cole Berlin singing in cabaret clubs in New York City. It was there on a Winter night in NYC that I saw him perform. Later, we joined him in his penthouse at the Chelsea Hotel. By August of 1983, like so many he would be dead from AIDS. In November 2004, Morrissey oversaw Jobriath's first CD re-issue.

Pornalicious!

While more companies are setting up shop online to avoid the overhead costs of a bricks and mortar store, porn directrix Chi Chi LaRue is doing the opposite. She  opened a brand new shop  last week  on Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood. The who's-who of porn  and We-Ho showed up!  Barrett Long, Blake Riley, Tyler Saint, Johnny Hazzard...Mayor of WeHo Jeffrey Prang, gossip writer Billy Masters, and scenesters Perez Hilton and Bobby Trendy.

The store will carry the whole Channel 1 catalog, including All Worlds Video and Catalina Video, and will also offer Rascal Video titles. A catalog of more than 2000 titles.

“This is the first time a customer will be able to find every Rascal, All Worlds, Catalina and Dirk Yates title under one roof,” C1R partner Rob Novinger said. “It is physically impossible for retailers to stock our full library.”

Toys and other novelty items will also be available. As well as some clothing, photo books and gift items. An exclusive arrangement has also been made with One Condoms to provide all the protective barrier products for the store.

“This place is going to be over-the-top fabulous,” LaRue said. “I’m thrilled to be opening a store where customers can come and get the full Chi Chi experience.”

The Last Expo

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) — Apple has announced that its iconic chief executive Steve Jobs will not make his traditional superstar appearance at Macworld Expo in January, and that the company is dropping out of the event. Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing Philip Schiller, who has routinely served as a comic sidekick during Macworld keynote presentations, will replace Jobs on stage in San Francisco on January 6.
“It will be Apple's last keynote at the show," the maker of trendsetting iPhones, iPods and Macintosh computers said in a terse press release. "This is the last year the company will exhibit at Macworld Expo." Macworld is an annual gathering of Apple Macintosh computer devotees, including users, developers and innovators pitching Macintosh-related products. Since the first Macworld was held in San Francisco in 1985, Jobs has used his keynotes to unveil world-captivating products such as iPods, iPhones, iTunes, and Macbook Air laptop computers. Tickets to Jobs keynotes at Macworld have been coveted, with hordes of Apple faithful queuing for hours to get precious seats in the audience. The decision by Jobs not to make a farewell performance at Macworld in January is rekindling speculation that his health is in trouble. "It is likely he is ill," said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group in Silicon Valley. "That is how the market is reacting to it." The price of Yahoo stock dropped slightly in after hours trading that followed the Macworld announcement. The California company's stock price had ended the trading day up nearly five percent. Apple downplayed its decision to pull out of Macworld, saying that its popular real-world and online stores have made it easy to connect with fans without having to spend money on an expo.

Macworld is run by event management firm IDG. In recent years Apple has stopped going to similar expos in New York, Tokyo and Paris. "Apple is now a mainstream vender and they don't have to collect all the loyalists together and chat with them," Enderle said. Apple's practice of using the Macworld stage to announce innovative products put pressure on the company to have hip, new things to launch every January. That is an unsustainable position for a company to be in given product development and production cycles, Enderle said. It also created a situation in which customers might wait to see what Apple announces in January instead of of buying what the company had on store shelves during the year-end shopping season. "I think Apple pulling out will kill an event that cost them money and they weren't getting much benefit out of," Enderle said. "They were going to make this decision eventually. I think the economy just pushed them over the edge. What isn't explained is why Steve Jobs isn't speaking at the last one." Apple will evidently still hold its annual world conference for Macintosh software developers in San Francisco.

O Amor Está no Ar

Master Photographer

Irving Penn is 91 years old.

Follow the money

The Huffington Post is running an interesting story about the perils of finger pointing in regards to Prop 8. The Marriott Corp. was singled out because the company's founding family and current CEO, Bill Marriott, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Days Saints. And you know how all gays feel about that. Turns out Bob contributed nothing, but guilt by association seems to be running rampant. A sample:
But why go after Marriott? According to my friend Bob Witeck, who runs a consulting firm called Witeck-Combs that specializes in gay issues and advises Marriott, neither Bill Marriott nor members of his immediate family donated to the campaign on behalf of Prop 8. What's more (and this is undisputed), Marriott as an employer has an exemplary record around diversity in general and LGBT employees in particular. It gets a 100% rating in the Corporate Equality Index, an annual survey of corporate practices done by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBT advocacy group. The HRC's inaugural gala next month will be held at the Mayflower Hotel, a Marriott property in Washington. GLAAD, an activist group that focuses on the media portrayals of gays, has held its awards ceremony at Manhattan's Marriott Marquis.
Entire story to be read here. For the record, I completely disagree with California's need to make all contributions public. It's nobody's business and in this volatile year it has hurt people who for better or worse contributed to a political belief of their choice. People have been scouring the public records looking for people who opposed the measure. As an example, I looked for David Cooley, owner of the posh Abbey in high-income West Hollywood. The Abbey charges $12 for a cocktail. David Cooley owns many fabulous homes. He's not on the list. Did he send money as a corporation? We may never know and I'm not sure we have the right to know. Charging $12 a drink is crime enough.

That's Settled

LONDON (AP) — Madonna has settled her divorce with ex-husband Guy Ritchie for at least 50 million pounds ($76 million), the singer's spokeswoman said Monday.

Liz Rosenberg told The Associated Press the settlement was in the range of 50 million to 60 million pounds ($76 million to $92 million) as part of their divorce agreement, a figure she said included the value of the couple's country home, Ashcombe House in western England.

Rosenberg said the couple's west London pub — the Punchbowl — would also remain with Ritchie.

A representative for the British filmmaker declined comment.

Fascinating

From gaywired this fascinating story of yet another former American Idol contestant having a mid-chill career change. Zachary Travis appeared on AI in 2006. He didn't didn't make it, so he reinvented himself as Kirk Cummings, porn star. The story is a must read. To catch Kirk cumming head here.

Exit: Van Johnson

Gay actor Van Johnson, a mainstay of MGM musicals and comedies of the 1940s and '50s who also played dramatic roles, died Friday in a senior center in Nyack, N.Y., of causes related to old age. He was 92.

Johnson, a native of Newport, R.I., was a chorus boy on Broadway before coming to Hollywood and rising to stardom playing a pilot in 1943's A Guy Named Joe, costarring Irene Dunne and Spencer Tracy. Exempt from military service because of severe injuries sustained in a car accident a few months before making that film, Johnson went on to become one of the busiest and most popular actors of the World War II years. Tall, with red hair and freckles, he had all-American good looks and was often cast as a boy-next-door type. His films included Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Week-End at the Waldorf, In the Good Old Summertime, State of the Union, Brigadoon, The Last Time I Saw Paris, and The Caine Mutiny.

He maintained a heterosexual public image, marrying Evie Wynn in January 1947 just hours after she divorced actor Keenan Wynn, a friend of Johnson's. The Johnsons had a daughter, Schuyler, and divorced in 1968. However, in recent years several biographers have reported that Johnson was gay or bisexual. "Johnson's orientation was probably more homosexual than heterosexual," observed Ronald L. Davis in Van Johnson: MGM's Golden Boy, adding that the star became particularly attracted to younger men as he grew older.

As he grew older Johnson also returned to the stage, not in the chorus but in leading roles, including one major gay role: In 1985 he replaced Gene Barry in the Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles, playing Georges, the "plain homosexual" husband to drag queen Albin. Johnson received good reviews and generated ticket sales. His other latter-day stage credits include On a Clear Day You Can See Forever on Broadway; The Music Man in London; and several regional and dinner theater productions. (Trudy Ring, Advocate.com)

The unbearable lightness of being gay

 A friend recently called and asked If I knew of any emerging gay artists. A few emails later, it was clear that nearly everyone I knew thought that, for the most part, gay art is dead. I headed to my favorite laboratory of gay culture, a famous nude site for men and searched for artists who might be hiding in between their lusts and posing for nude photos of themselves: there were none to be found. To be sure, there were the requisite Photoshopped images of collaged men against a backdrop of an ancient parchment universe, the horrible photoshop filters applied to the casual image and the vectorization of almost everything.
We are in fact in a Craigslist period of art: It's all for sale and relatively cheap.
Two things ruined art (at least photography) in this millennium: Digital cameras and Photoshop. Digital cameras with their "instant gratification isn't fast enough" quality allowed us to see ourselves as we really are. The greatest art of this century is the self-portrait. With self timers and mirrors we have never become so involved in our own image as we do today. If there was some kind of latent Narcissism floating around in the gay thicket, it revealed itself with a bang as gay men everywhere became (in their minds, at least) porn stars, models and objects of photographic attention. Professional photographers, like graphic designers a generation before them (that thing called desktop publishing) are worried. If everyone can take a reasonably good photo, why should someone pay? It's a curious fact that all the self-involvement of digital photography has laid a strange groundwork for everyone becoming a photographer—we begin to understand lighting and the elements that are required to get a good image. Combined with a virtual visual feast provided everyday, every minute, the ability to discern between good and great has increasingly become a blurred line—out of sheer exhaustion.
But the real power is in shock. The above photo, for many reasons, is shocking. Situated in a crowded room, a man with an erection seems oblivious (as does everyone else) to his surroundings or to his own erection. Is it art? I remember years ago being in Sydney's modern art museum where an exhibition of Robert Mapplethorpe's nudes were being shown. A group of young girls, likely fifteen, were gathered around one image, it was a rather large black penis. They giggled and tittered not so much out of shock, but out of an embarrassing fascination. Nudity per se has become boring, it is all about context. Does the photographer even matter with such an image? If he created the image, yes, if he simply happened to be there? Who knows, it’s a but like asking if this is art or pornography and the answer to that would be if this image excited you, or not.

The Shaping of a Life

Were you Gay yesterday?

In the gay politico version of "It's A Wonderful Life" we would have all, in view of one of worst economic realities in a long while, take the day off from work to show our support for gay marriage by providing a sample of what life would be without us gays. Or in words of organizer Sean Hetherington: "Gay people and our allies are compassionate, sensitive, caring, mobilized, and programmed for success. A day without gays would be tragic because it would be a day without love." Sounds like he might have attended one of those Landmark Forums for gays, nonetheless, DWAG was a bust. From the SF Gate:
Activists had billed Wednesday as "a day without a gay," when gays and lesbians across the country would call in sick, boycott shopping and show the impact of their absence from everyday life.

Designed to be a protest against the Nov. 4 passage of Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, the day's events drew only scattered support in the Bay Area, the heart of the gay rights movement, and also criticism.

Several gay and lesbian people said they couldn't afford to take the day off, particularly in a tightening economy where many are concerned about their jobs. And in the Castro district, business owners were livid that people were encouraged to not shop during the holidays, a peak time for retailers.

"Our rights have been taken away as much as anyone else's," said Rich Boutell, who runs Whatever comics on Castro Street and whose marriage was thrown into limbo with the Nov. 4 election. He and his husband, Cougar Andrews, kept their store open and wished the "day without a gay" organizers had encouraged gay-allied individuals to patronize gay-owned businesses. "The whole purpose should be to support your own, not to boycott. If you're going to have a protest, it should be a positive thing. The gay dollar is powerful."

Denny and Alan Get Married!

Boston Legal took a sly backdoor approach to the issue of gay marriage in last nights final show. The show ending predictably where it has from the beginning—on the balcony, but this time, with a married Alan Shore and Denny Crane—to one another.
Boston Legal, that most schizophrenic of television shows that always remained current, yet ridiculous, played out its last scene with a married Denny and Alan dancing. The 60 second balcony scenes were legendary for breaking the wall (alluding the fact they were in a television show), revealing an intimacy between two men that was unlike anything, complete with many, many exchanges of "I love yous" and summing up the current state of the American psyche.
So why did Denny and Alan marry? Mostly for tax reasons and power of attorney, the concept pitted a gay lawyer against Alan Shore in court. It was an interesting exchange as Alan asked does the law have the right to inquire into the emotional reasons for marriage—mentioning that a gay man could marry a woman and still get all the rights and the "marriage" itself was only one of convenience. He had a point. And he won.
The episode lacked the expected emotional wallop of a final show despite the dual weddings of the shows principals and the final intimate chat between Denny and Alan. The sad fact is, Denny Crane had become annoying and it took marriage to shut him up, so be it. What Boston Legal did stunningly over and over was address current legal issues with Alan Shore as its long-winded mouthpiece. But they were also brilliant. David E. Kelley's take on gays in the military was nothing less than genius. In a culture where Private Practice, the greatest yawn of a series can survive and BL must bite the dust, we truly are in trouble.

El Coyote Manager Quits!

 The cautionary tale of El Coyote continues: A beleaguered manager of El Coyote, a Los Angeles restaurant popular with gays and lesbians, has quit after she came under fire for donating $100 to support the proposition.

As of Saturday evening, Marjorie Christoffersen was no longer employed at El Coyote, Frontiers magazine reported Monday on its website. Bill Schoeppner, a fellow manager at El Coyote, told Frontiers that Christoffersen tendered her resignation that night. Christoffersen, described on the El Coyote website as the "matriarch" of the 77-year-old restaurant, will also be resigning from the restaurant's board of directors.

The trouble began last month when local bloggers uncovered (you don't uncover it, it’s a matter of public record—it's surprising that some of the biggest mouths in this controversy, donated nothing, as a matter of public record) Christoffersen's donation. Christoffersen is a Mormon. A November 12 press conference intended to defuse the anger of the restaurant's gay clientele backfired when Christoffersen refused to apologize for the donation and said she would not financially support efforts to repeal Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. It's been reported that gay and lesbian business at the Mexican eatery has dropped precipitously since then.

John Winston Lennon; October 9, 1940 – December 8, 1980

Can it really be 28 years ago John Lennon was murdered in New York City on this day?

The Matter of Beauty

Are you beautiful? Not just good looking, but BEAUTIFUL?
The fact is, there are thankfully not too many beautiful people. Beauty requires contrast; something to compare itself to in order to shine. And beauty does shine. It works like an elixir on everyone who gets a faint visual whiff of its magic— it torments and haunts all of us, very few are immune.
After a screening of the new film, Twilight, it is easy to understand beauty. Actor Robert Pattinson is certainly beautiful as is much of the cast, but Pattinson holds the camera, as we linger long into the perfect proportions of eyes, nose, lips and perfectly square jaw. The other beauty is Jackson Rathbone, who brings a Edward Scissorhands quality to his role as Jasper Hale. Everything must emanate from the eyes, the large luminous green eyes. And it does. The film itself is nearly a bore—never have vampires have been cast with such little bite. The special effects border on the ridiculous and seem horribly dated. There is a believability between the two leads, which essentially makes up the movie. The gay factor is a whopping zero. Only Justin Chon as a person with the improbable name of Eric Yorkie seems like he might be very comfortable on Project Runway. There is so little flesh that we are forced to consider that other element of lust: the face. Apparently all the rainy dew of the Pacific Northwest works well as a moisturizer, even when as a vampire you get to stay 17 forever.

It's interesting to ponder that eventually Daniel Craig will have to give up his job as James Bond. He will be too old to be running over rooftops like a cat on a hot tin roof. In he new Bond film with the poetic title, Quantum of Solace (it sounds like a poetry review) there a few scenes where hunkster Daniel Craig looks like he needs more than a handful of solace, he needs better lighting. One wonders what young actors out there are priming themselves for exactly that role: the Bond of 2015?
But beauty.
Most likely you have known some beautiful people in your life. It's a fact that for beautiful people, most things in life some quiet easily. They are treated differently (this is a fact), they get the better jobs, the better dates, the better place at the table. On the other hand, they are distrustful of people's attention. They want to be loved for their souls while the public is clamoring over their looks. The other real problem with beauty is that it generally fades. Thankfully, very slowly for men. For most of us, with our boxes of photographs (if we are of a certain pre-digital age) we can witness the excursion of time on our bodies and faces. Gravity widens us in so many ways—our face grows wider, our stomach grows wider and with great sadness it must be reported that our penis does not. It is a myth to think that your penis grows smaller as you age, it doesn't. The surrounding body around it simply grows more mass, the ink of sex, testosterone dries up and it appears that erections are smaller when they are simply not as firm.
The great thing about age and beauty is that while the body evolves, hopefully, so does the mind. For most of us the rite du passage called life, is a march towards the end. Our values, concerns, relationships and complexities change over time-with any hope we evolve from the narcissism of youth to the complacency of old age, where the matters of how beautiful we are become less and less meaningfully. And yet, if one is stunningly beautiful in their early years, is aging harder?
I recently met up with a friend from decades ago, who was as I reminded him, "one of the great beauties of the 70s." Poet Allen Ginsberg chased after him, Hockney begged him to pose and Mapplethorpe tried to seduce him by buying drinks at Uncle Charlie's in Greenwich Village. He moved to Australia in the 80s and for the most part, he stayed there with his delightful partner, an Anglican priest. Seeing him now, it was easy to see what made him one of the great beauties: the roman aquiline nose, the Pacific blue eyes, the easy head of now salt and pepper hair. He could only laugh when I reminded him of the past. Thirty odd years with the same delightful man could never hope to compete with whatever physical injustices life tossed his way. He was happy.

Greetings!

Prop 8: The Musical

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Neal's Not-so-secret sex life

From Jossip, this curious story of sexual intrigue:

Neal Boulton is the editor of Genre, the gay men's magazine, and something called BastardLife.com, a bisexual men's web magazine. Clearly the man has a thing for mixing media and gender identity, as the various "anonymously sourced" items about Boulton's NYC sexing — which reek of having been planted by Boulton himself — also suggest, as does his former editorship of Men's Fitess, which is basically a magazine for straight guys to ogle other guys. Not terribly surprising, then, that his on-and-off (and back on) partner for the last 16 years, Claire, used their sometimes open relationship to sometimes enjoy the company of other women while her husband was off dabbling with homos. And now, like The Pregnant Man, they're on a road to sharing their story with the world. Read on, America, for the next great chapter of the GLBT movement.

First, or wishful thinking-ly last, stop: Page Six Magazine, where they recount meeting at an anti-abortion rally (he had a boyfriend at the time) and then spending the next 16 years, and two children later, figuring out how to identify themselves. ("For a while, Claire even had a girlfriend and Neal had a boyfriend. 'It rocked,' says Neal. 'Claire made me look like a wallflower. She's had hotter girlfriends than I've ever had.' Hooking up with members of the opposite sex was off the table.")

Meanwhile, Boulton, who aims for a career in porn, was chocking up career achievements: Running Men's Fitness for David Pecker's American Media, relaunching The National Enqurier, then getting fired from his post for putting out a magazine that was "too gay." Then there was the meeting with Jann Wenner, where they smooched and started a snowballing rumor about the twosome dating. (Wenner, of course, has his own history of relationship trouble with boyfriend Matt Nye.)

And then, supposedly, Genre publisher Bill Kapfer came knocking on his door begging him to relaunch the magazine, which is a funny story because Boulton himself has told us he was the one to approach Kapfer, get then-editor Chris Ciompi fired, and takeover the magazine with a grand plan. ("Grand," so far, means a circ jump of 20k.)

So where does Boulton stand now? In a "forever" monogamous relationship with wife Claire. And since that's the message being put forth by Boulton himself, we should expect a dry spell of Boulton sightings at Chelsea gay bars.

Today is...

FACTS:

• People living with HIV/AIDS in 2007: 33.0 million

• More than 25 million people have died of AIDS since 1981.

• Africa has 11.6 million AIDS orphans.

• At the end of 2007, women accounted for 50% of all adults living with HIV worldwide, and for 59% in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Young people (under 25 years old) account for half of all new HIV infections worldwide.

• In developing and transitional countries, 9.7 million people are in immediate need of life-saving AIDS drugs; of these, only 2.99 million (31%) are receiving the drugs.

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