Planet Homo

A Different Light Goes Out

A fixture in Los Angeles for almost 30 years, A Different Light Bookstore will be closing its doors for good in the near future, reported InstinctMagazine.com.

The LGBT bookstore is located in West Hollywood in the heart of the city's gay village, and was long the epicenter of culture in the neighborhood. The closing of A Different Light follows the recent announcement that New York's gay-themed Oscar Wilde bookstore is shuttering as well.

Bill Barker, owner of A Different Light, told Instinct that two specific events contributed to his decision to close -- a Santa Monica Boulevard street project (where the bookshop is located) that tore up the sidewalk for months on end, and a 2007 fire that closed down a nightclub operating next door to the bookstore.

Barker said his San Francisco store will remain open (a New York ADL shut down years ago) and an online outlet will remain intact. There's no official date set for the closing, but it will be before mid-April. (Neal Broverman, Advocate.com)

Neal Boulton Bolts from Genre Magazine

Neal Boulton has quit as editor of the gay magazine Genre to pursue his dream of becoming a best-selling author. Boulton recently sold his motorcycle-trekking book, "Sex Across America," and is working on a memoir about being a married bisexual dad of two with a switch-hitting wife. "I made the hard call to leave my friends at Genre. It's been a good run," Boulton told us. "Hell, Anna Wintour had to close Men's Vogue - we're still standing." He adds that his lifestyles Web site, BastardLife.com, has been "seriously approached" by "Penn & Teller: Bull[bleep]!" director Star Price about doing a show called "BastardLife NYC."
Boulton's tenure as editor was marked by, publicity for Boulton, as his legendary partying was chronicled by insiders. As editor, he did little to elevate the magazine beyond formulating that "sex sells".  An example would be the mostly curious Genre website,  which completely lacks acknowledgment that a magazine actually exists, which to all extent and purposes is doubtful (maybe he saw the future). To further annoy readers, the last issues of the magazine have not been mailed to the few existing subscriber's which was eventually blamed on "the printers." No blame has yet to be assigned to be the numerous photographers and writers who have not received payment for their services.

In the name of God

An interesting story at miketidmus.com/blog, about Dustin Lance Black's speech at the Oscars debating his references to God. While interesting, there is some confusion about the notion that mentioning God suggests religion, which it really doesn't.

Sean Penn's Man Crush

Increasingly double-chinned Bill O'Reilly and loud mouth clown Monica Crowley play critic to the Oscar's as they review Sean Penn's win.

The Teddy Awards

The Teddy Awards announced their winners last week in Berlin and among the winners were John Hurt for Best Acting Performance in "An Englishman in New York", a special TEDDY Foundation Award to Joe Dallesandro for his achievements "as underground film star, gay icon and actor", and the best feature film award went to Raging Sun, Raging Sky (Rabioso sol, rabioso cielo) by Julián Hernández. It has to be noted our dear friend Joey Arias won the "Best Drag Queen in the World" award. As for this titillating photo, this is Eike von Stuckenbrok, who labels himself an "equilibrist", which means modern dancer and acrobat in English The video can be seen here. For all the Teddy, head here.

Report from Iowa

Intrepid reporter Todd Schultz braved the cold of Iowa to file this report:
Wednesday nights in Iowa City, Iowa tend to drag. Or rather, is it the queens who are dragging?
At Studio 13, a gay bar about half the size of an Olympic size swimming pool, Queen bee Drag Queen, and Iowan Gay Icon Dena Cass is a riot. A comedienne, a hell of a dancer, and tits that would put Pam Anderson in her glory days to shame.
 People might not expect this class of drag fervor in a “small town” like Iowa City. But the boys in Iowa know how to get down.
 In fact, Iowa City is said to be among the highest per capita gay cities in the nation. And on Wednesday nights Studio 13 is packed to the brim. Hot men everywhere, drinks are flowing, and the lovely ladies of Wednesday Night’s Drag show parade in their glamour gowns.
 When I decided to cover the drag show, I was a little bit shy about taking pictures, but I was obviously naïve about Drag Queens. Dena was anything but shy. She flaunted her long lashes, and her luscious fun bags, only getting wilder for the camera.
 Iowa may not be your idea of the ideal vacation, but for all of you guys out there who have that corn-fed farm boy fantasy, it just might be the perfect spot.
 And know this: When you come to Studio 13, on a Wednesday Night, you know you’re going to have a good time, Dena will make sure of that.

Pass This Along

"Fidelity": Don't Divorce... from Courage Campaign on Vimeo.
Ken Starr, who led the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton, filed a legal brief last month -- on behalf of the "Yes on 8" campaign -- that would forcibly divorce 18,000 same-sex couples that were married in California last year before the passage of Prop 8. Watch "Fidelity" and sign our letter to the state Supreme Court before they hear oral arguments in the case on March 5. Tell the Supreme Court to invalidate Prop 8, reject Ken Starr's case, and let loving, committed couples marry. DEADLINE EXTENDED: March 2. 303,893 people have signed this letter (as of Wednesday, February 18). Our new Courage Campaign community goal is 350,000 signers. Will you add your name now by clicking on the following link: couragecampaign.org/Divorce. With over 900,000 total views currently on Vimeo and YouTube, we're also shooting for 1 million views combined. To help this video reach 1 million people, please tell your friends to watch "Fidelity" and tell their friends!
"Fidelity" used with permission from Regina Spektor and EMI Records.

The Advocate: This is news?

The Advocate is a self proclaimed news magazine and their website is "The Award-Winning LGBT News Site" so it’s a little strange when you see on their pages yesterday this "news" story about the former lover of  Portland mayor, Sam Adams accepting to pose, naked of course for, you guessed it, Unzipped magazine. Cross pollination is nothing new, but rarely this shameless.

The Academy Award of Tricks

It was bound to happen: we live in a digital era, where dating is nothing less than getting online and demanding your particular pleasure and expecting it. It's a nasty playground to be sure. People lie. Many people are bored and assuming a personality and image has never been easier. The "trick" is to never never follow through. If you do, you might find yourself on rateurtrick.com. Started in November 2008, RYT currently has 12,000 members. Started for noble reasons as creator Robert Hallman revealed in a recent interview:  I was living in Seattle in 2000 and a friend of mine and I knew someone named JonPaul who was constantly going off on this guy and that guy and after a while, just listening to him gave me the idea of doing the site. My friend John, however, decided it was a bad idea because of the potential of slander, etc.—but then we hadn’t done our research and we knew nothing about the CDA Act of 1996, so it never happened. I finally made the decision to do it when two things occurred: a friend of mine—who used drugs—was hung and overdosed by some guy while he was in their playroom, while his boyfriend was in the office area in the same house. All my friend remembers is the guy his lover was playing with walk by with this five-year-old laptop and leave the house and then he heard kicking sounds coming from the playroom and found his lover hanging by a noose, frothing at the mouth."
While most encounters are less dramatic, the sheer drama of finding out about next week's trick can be titillating. There will always be the potential for revenge—less than happy tricksters for a litany of reasons, discarding the truth for sexual fictions or other innuendo. ("Tweaker Tweaker Sunny Day, OMG it Sun, girl STAY AWAY....what a mess!") Or in an era of shameless self-promotion, you can always write yourself up in glowing terms. ("Hook up with this guy if you can") . The current listings are surprisingly kind: most men tell it like it is. People may lie about their age a few years, or a few inches, but it seems like most people are out there, having a lot of sex, and enjoying it. Check it out.

The Blogger's Oath

Happy Valentine's

Yes it is.

http://www.obviousmag.com/

Armani Exchange suggests a whole lotta love

The Armani Exchange store at the Shops at Mission Viejo is in hot water over a Valentine's day window display made of condoms arranged into a heart. It sounds innocuous to us, but then, we're not conservative Orange County parents, some of whom have been calling the mall to complain. (Our favorite critique, from the OC Register's comments section: "It's not multiple partners day, it's Valentine's Day." Seriously! Multiple Partners Day isn't until March, and anyway, it's really just a holiday Hallmark invented to sell more "#1 Booty Call" mugs.)
So far the store hasn't caved—unlike a branch in Michigan, which just took their display down—but this story is still developing. By the way, do note that the condoms are still in the packaging, meaning the display is about as licentious as that well-known locus of corruption, the Trojan section at CVS.
writer Izzy Grinspan

New Junior

The new issue of brazilian gay magazine JUNIOR has hit the streets and the emails. With Rodrigo Calazans on  the cover, the magazine has Carnival as inspiration. Rodrigo was photographed at Acadêmicos do Salgueiro square, in Rio de Janeiro, one of the most important samba clubs from Brazil.

Photo Found

 "Vinny, an Unloader" (1982).  South Street Seaport Museum
2008.005.0018. Copyright Barbara G. Mensch.

Print Envy

A magazine we love is MAO MAG. This month's issue features fashion icons Carrie Donovan, Veruschka, Donyale Luna, Bill King, Herb Ritts and more. Founders Mauricio and Roger Padilha launched MAO MAG in September 2003. It is published bi-annually, coinciding with New York Fashion week, and explores the worlds of fashion, both past and present, commercial and underground. In its first 8 issues, MAO MAG featured profiles on varied Industry professionals such as Carine Roitfeld, Bob Richardson, Bert Stern, Polly Mellon, Scavullo, Peggy Moffit, Antonio Lopez, Arianne Phillips, Joe Dallesandro, Giorgio Di Sant Angelo, Way Bandy, Candy Pratts Price, Donna Karan, Edie Sedgwick, Jay and Jed Johnson, Chloe Sevigny, Ara Gallant, Pamela Anderson, Fiorucci, Francisco Costa, Bob Mackie, Thierry Perez, Jeremy Scott, Paul Morrissey, Liza Minelli, Nina Hagen, Isacc Mizrahi, Betsey Johnson, Mamie Van Doren, Amanda Lepore and Raquel Welch. Check out the great display of layouts. MM can be purchased at these bookstores.

Why?

Mitcham's New Deal

 He is young, good-looking and has the powerful build that comes with years of training in the pool.

He also has an Olympic gold medal hanging round his neck, one he took from the Chinese in the last minutes of the Beijing Games last August.

So there was some surprise that Matthew Mitcham, 20, was not snapped up by advertisers on his return to Australia - so far he is the national face of Aussiebum, an underwear brand.

In a nation notorious for its single-minded obsession with sporting glory, it had been argued that Mr Mitcham's open homosexuality may have been the reason that he was not offered the lucrative ad contracts that so many Olympians were rewarded with before him.

It has now been confirmed that the 20-year-old will represent telecoms company Telstra at events and product launches.

The company said he is a "positive role model for all Australians."

Mr Mitcham said he thought the troubled economic situation was the reason he had not been picked up rather than his sexuality.

He declined to reveal how much the Telstra deal is worth.

"I was a little bit worried (about the lack of sponsors) so hopefully this will be a snowball effect, but I don't want to count my chickens," he said.

"If I can get the opportunity where I would be able to train without having to worry about paying the bills, that would be the ultimate goal."

Mr Mitcham trains 11 times a week for the 2012 London Olympics.

He became a hero to gay people across the world when he won a diving gold in Beijing.

He was the only out gay male athlete to compete in the Games.

In a shocking upset, he took home a gold medal in the 10-metre platform event, beating the Chinese favourites.

Despite intensive coverage of other gold medallist’s personal lives during the Games, US broadcaster NBC failed to mention Mitcham was gay, or show footage of the diver’s partner cheering him on and congratulating him after the win.

He was immortalised along with other gold medallists at the 2008 Beijing Olympics on a series of special commemorative stamp.
source: http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-11091.html

For the weekend

New Study: Oral Sex Good!

Public health types are always agonizing about oral sex. Should we say it’s dangerous or not? Now, Swedish researchers have shown that lots of oral sex with an HIV-infected partner may actually be protective against the virus.

The study, published in the (expensive, subscription only) AIDS journal and helpfully summarised by Aidsmap suggests that men who give lots of blow jobs to their HIV-positive partners develop antibodies specific to that partner’s virus, protecting themselves against infection. The more virus their partner has kicking around in their semen, the higher the concentration of specific antibodies, and the protection seems to last for quite a while too. None of the men became infected over the course of the study, even though their partners were not all on treatment.

Are you a B Boy?

The Ex Files

"When God wants to take His message of deliverance across the globe, there is NO stopping Him."  That is for sure. It is nearly unbelievable that T shirts like this exist but they do. The real problem is going to be that witty homos will be buying them putting money into the evil hands of these so-called "ministries". They are available here. "We pray that you will join us in breaking the silence on an issue that has stayed silent for too long. Be the first to boldly rock your Ex-Masturbator shirt and let's change the world baby!" Oh yeah! Yes, the heartbreak of masturbation. Oh my God!

When Calvin Klein Was Bad

With the recent news alert that some Calvin Klein ads were being banned in the US, we decided it was time to look back when CK really did push the envelope. The envelope here being" they're so young!"

The Fear Factor

Threats and danger.
There is much to fear and its curious that this one emotion, which is awakened very early in us, is so ubiquitous. There is hardly a day that goes by when we don't fear something: a near auto accident, a skip in the rhythm of the heart. the economy, our jobs, our health, success, our age, our parents, our legacy.
There are more books written about fear in the self-help section, which makes sense. How do we conquer fear? As Joni Mitchell once summed it up: some turn to Jesus, some to heroin. Some suggest that we think only the good, positive thoughts, as if to keep the bad at bay, some demand that we be in "now" as if we could be anywhere else, some suggest we only surround ourselves with the positive, which means we lose half our friends. We turn to religion, spiritual and otherworldly experiences to assuage the unease. We turn to drugs, for some drugs have the desired effect of numbing the coils of fear; for a few hours we are beside ourselves, lost in a tranquility or fervor that keeps us from ever thinking about fear, though coming down can be counted as among one of the greatest sd of fear you can have. And then there is the Zen version: give in, accept, surrender and shuffle.
Surely we are we are wired for fear. We leave that ultimate home comfort called corpus uteri, and smash into a world of oxygen, bright lights, distinct smells and a slap on the bottom to boot.
The clock begins at that point though we are hardly aware of it. That will happen later in life, around 45 when a shocking realization of mortality stings the bloom off of youth. We die. We hurt. There is pain, there is suffering. We have conjured up a thousand mythologies to explain the world, giving it a thousand names: Bhagavan, Aten, Aten, Shenen, Yahweh. And yet, the mystery remains.
Threats and danger.
It is wired within us, though a hundred slights and indifference's will caulk the experience of being hurt, running away, being in fear. It is always a fool that says: "I don't fear death", for on its most basic level, that is biologically impossible and secondly, it assumes an emotion, perhaps your final emotion, that is far too great to evaluate until you get there. There is a beautiful irony slipped into the magical DNA of life: we love life, whether we like it or not.
There are no answers, which pisses off a lot of people. We reach for that item on the existential menu, which best suits, us and even that shifts and changes with time. There is no certainty, that is for certain. Seizing the moment (Carpe Diem!) living ones life to the fullest, being in touch are all great reminders that for the most part we really do live in fear, often mistakenly, foolishly and we know we should live each day as if it were our last, but we also know, inherently, that is exhausting.
We simply go on. For myself: I need to stop drinking coffee.

How the Economy Works

 

Shaq: "No fist kiss"

2/2 UPDATE: ESPN will remove the ad from its site and post a statement, its Associate Director of Diversity, Stephanie Turner, told GLAAD's Sports Media program Monday afternoon.