Saturday, October 28, 2006

Star Spotting

Last night I ran into pop star Andy Bell of Erasure, at Blackstones, a Portland gay bar. In the past 20 years I've run into Bell at the Warsaw Ballroom in South Beach, the Armory in Atlanta, the Hole In The Wall in San Francisco, the Cellblock in Chicago, and the DC Eagle. I don't think I've run into any of my actual real life friends as often in so many far-flung places. As usual, Andy was charming, enduring my gushing fandom with warmth and a generous hug. Erasure's latest release, Union Street, named after the Brooklyn street where it was recorded, is an unplugged-style accoustic take on some of their lesser-known tracks.

Friday, October 27, 2006

Diner Life

Portland, 730am

I'm sitting alone at a window table in a diner near the wharf. Through the windows I can see the top of a row of fishing boats, rocking slightly in their berths. Every bit of signage I can see has a lobster or a moose or a lighthouse on it. I can hear the wind whistling slightly around the cracks in the front door, except for the times when the cook makes noise with his pots. Commericial Street, with its cluster of galleries, souvenir shops, and brew pubs, is hours away from opening for the day.

Pedestrian traffic outside is light and I'm one of only five customers in the restaurant. We're all men. We are all eating alone. The vinyl in my booth is cracked and peeling and I am happy as this feels like an authentic New England experience, at least if what all those years of television have taught me are true. I imagine that at any moment Dolores Claiborne might schlump past the windows, carrying a load of laundry.

My server is an old young woman. I say that because while her face is unlined by years, her carriage seems burdened by worry. She is pleasant enough, if distant. Twice, I see her pause while clearing a table to stare motionless out the window for a moment. She picks up a departing customer's newspaper and shuffles through it for an advertising supplement, folding it and tucking it into her apron. The man whom I presume to be the manager seats another solitary man next to me and calls my waitress to join him behind the partition, out of my view. She looks at him and frowns, tosses the rag she was using to wipe the tables onto a chair, then moves slowly around the partition.

"What did I do now?"

"I need you to work tonight. Carol just called in sick."

"No way. I worked 11 hours on Tuesday and I only made $40 fucking dollars. And I had to give $20 to the babysitter for keeping Alice after school."

"No way? That's your answer? I thought you wanted more hours."

"I do, Jeff, but I need weekend hours, when it's busy, not these bullshit weekday breakfast shifts. $40 for 11 hours on Tuesday. Tell me you'd want that."

The manager pauses for a long moment, then says, "Alright. If you can't, you can't. I'm just trying to cover all the shifts here and give the team players the schedules they deserve."

My waitress comes back out and removes my empty plate without a word. She moves it over to the side station and again I see her pause and stare into the distance. I leave her a nice tip and take my check to the register. The manager is handing me my change when the waitress walks up. I turn to put on my coat and put my hand on the door. As I push out into the wind, I hear her.

"Jeff, I'll work tonight."

Foley Email Blogger Identified

The anonymous blogger behind StopSexPredators, which first leaked the Foley emails, is a former Democratic Senate staffer named Lane Hudson, who used to work for both South Carolina Senator Fritz Hollings and South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges. Lane, 29, lives in Michigan, where he was the HRC's only paid staffer, making it easy for Radar to find him once the HRC revealed his home state.

Lane, I'd like to buy you a drink.

Morning View - TWA Terminal

On Wednesday, I got to JFK early enough to walk over to Terminal 5 and grab this shot. Built in 1962 for TWA Airlines, Eero Saarinen designed the building to "evoke the idea of flight" and not to actually look like a bird, but like most people, I see a raptor, claws extended. It's glorious, even ghostly and deserted. The building was completed a year after Saarinen's death and has been closed since TWA folded in 2001. I tried to get a picture of the very cool interior, but a septuagenarian rent-a-cop came running over and chased me away, screaming "No pictures!". I guess they're worried about somebody breaking in and starting an airline. I've heard that JetBlue has plans on expanding over from Terminal 6, beginning in 2008.

Hillary Sees Pink Writing On The Wall

Saying that her position on gay marriage has "evolved", Sen. Hillary Clinton on Wednesday told a group of gay activists that she's changed her mind since she told voters during her 2000 senatorial campaign that she opposed gay marriage. "Obviously my friends and people who spoke to me-we've had many long conversations and I think-and which I believe-that the way that I have spoken and I have advocated has certainly evolved and I am happy to be educated and to learn as much as I can," she said. Clinton does not plan to oppose the plan of shoo-in gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer to enact a same-sex marriage law, saying she supports "full equality of benefits, nothing left out", but ""If you go the next step and say, 'But I want what is called marriage,' you're going to have a problem." (via Gay City News, 365gay.com.)

Isn't it interesting that the revelation of this change of mind happened on the day of the NJ Supreme Court decision ruling in favor of civil unions for same-sex couples? Anybody else feeling a wind of change blowin' across the Hudson?

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Hotel In-Room Entertainment

- Do My Slutty Wife
- Black Maled
- Sexy Grannies: Aged To Perfection
- 18 & Innocent
- Barely Legal: Ripe For Plucking
- Real Racks: Totally Natural Boobs
- My Husband Loves Cock Too!
- Bi Bi American Pie

Let no erotic niche go unexploited! I love capitalism.

Now back to the World Series.

Anthology Review

The anthology got a nice write up in this week's Time Out New York, including a quote from an interview with me. Congrats to our worthy editors for getting the notice!

Open Thread Thursday

Sort your browswer history by "most visited". Aside from your own sites (your blog, your MySpace, etc.) what are your three most-visited sites?

Mine: Technorati, SFGate, New York Times.

(Thanks to Chris at Boy's Briefs for this week's Open Thread idea.)
.

Labels:


Morning View - Portland, Maine

The view from my hotel room, looking west. At 9pm last night, I had to walk ten NYC-blocks just to find a single place open and selling any kind of food. Ten blocks! Manhattan can sure spoil you.

Portland, Day 2

Still no sign of lobster, rock or otherwise.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

HRC Outs Outer

“The email exchanges in question between former Congressman Mark Foley and a House page have been in the possession of bloggers and media outlets for some time now. Yesterday, it came to our attention that an HRC employee, hired just last month to work for us in Michigan, was responsible for initially posting these emails on his blog. We investigated the matter, determined that HRC resources had been inappropriately used, and let him go. No one at the Human Rights Campaign, other than this individual, had any knowledge of his activities,” said Brad Luna, Spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign.

via - Stop October Surprises

If we buy the press release, I suppose this could neatly end the story, at least as far as HRC's involvement. Do we buy it? I'm sure that the gay neocon conspiricists won't.

UPDATE: Today's NY Times weighs in on yesterday's HRC press release.

NJ Homos Improve Bus Seating, Slightly

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled today that gay couples are entitled to civil unions under the state's equal protections guarantees. Activists on both sides are disappointed. Bloggers on both sides are disappointed. And the rest of New Jersey goes back to burying their enemies in the backyard.

Big Lug Review

Big Lug's opening was a roaring success, judging by the huge line of hairy men waiting on Avenue A when I light-weighted out of there at 1130PM. A regular JMG blogroll who's-who was on hand: Mark (The Mark Of Kane), Eric (We Like Sheep), Jeff (Cynically Optimistic), Paul (Habitat 67), Bryce (Plastic Music), Neil (Diary Of A Dandy) Foxy (Fox In The City), DJ Paul Ferrer (I Am Your DJ), Rod (Manhattan Offender), and probably a few more that I'm missing. The rest of the crowd spanned their late 20's - early 50's, mostly bears and cubs, with a few dykes and fag hags thrown in. Standing outside the bar, but never spotted inside, was this semi-famous actor, yakking on his cell and looking properly East Village-scruffy in his tattered hoody. (I'm also told that this pop star arrived shortly after I left. I'd have hung around longer if I'd known, Rich!)

The bar, a rectangular basement space under Tigerland, about the size and dimensions of Nowhere Bar, was comfortably packed inside, even with the big line outside, so my kudos go to the doorman for not overcrowding the joint beyond endurance (a more typical NYC opening night experience). Music volume was pretty reasonable too, also a nice change. I didn't catch the DJ's name, but he threw out an oddly compelling hodgepodge of oldies: Plastic Bertrand's Ça Plane Pour Moi, Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City, Iggy Pop's Wild One, Bronski Beat's Why?, and Billy Idol's Eyes Without A Face, which inspired some '80s-video reenactments nearby me.

Memorable lines of the evening:

From an adorable baby dyke: "Yeah, see, the thing about FTMs is they were socialized as girls and hardly any of them are bottoms, and that really appeals to me."

From a fuzzy local: "I don't even know why I'm here. I can't have sex with this huge tear in my dick."

From a young Spaniard: "I've been growing this itchy beard for two whole weeks just for tonight. Why must we suffer for our beauty?"

Summary: I give Big Lug high marks overall and expect that it will do rather well in its unique East Village niche. It's too small a joint to seriously damage the business at the sprawling Eagle, but look for Big Lug's Saturday nights to be definite success. Tonight: DJs Paul & Damien inaugurate their Where's The Beef? electro party.

Charlene Hilton

She suffers for her art.

UPDATE: Video from the Washington Post of last night's Dupont Circle High Heel Drag Race.

Scent Of A Golden Girl

Fox News' morning show today reported the critical news that scientists have discovered that among scents that heighten sexual arousal for men, the strongest reaction is from a combination of lavender and pumpkin pie. Mention that to Grandma, next time you see her.

Morning View - Bamm Automat

This morning, your view is the Bamm Automat, NYC's new and only automat, since the last one closed on 42nd Street in 1991. I finally got a look at Bamm in the East Village last night and while I understand the retro-kitsch of the joint (and the place is very neat looking in a pink-Hello Kitty-7/11 kind of way), the practice of having to put a pile of quarters into a little door to get to your teriyaki burger while there's a clerk standing right there who could reach into the little window and hand it to you, well, it just seems like a lot of bother. "Hey! I opened the little door and got my OWN damn burger!" Shrug.

It's 2525 And We've Got The Most Wigs Alive!


Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Big Lug Opens Tonight

Big Lug opens in the East Village tonight, kicking off what looks like a pretty interesting schedule of theme nights. Big Lug is in the basement under Tigerland, across from Sidewalk on A between 5th & 6th. From uptown take the 6 to Astor Place, walk east. From the West Village/Chelsea, take the L to 1st Ave. Map.

Another October Surprise

When the Foley page scandal broke in late September, it was due to the anonymous blogsite Stop Sex Predators, who posted copies of emails that Foley had sent to a 16 year old page. The authorship of Stop Sex Predators has been a source of widespread speculation, with accusations aimed at both the Democrat and Republican parties.

Since last week, I've been watching another anonymous blog called Stop October Surprises, who seems to have found proof of the authorship of Stop Sex Predators, by putting a ReadNotify request on emails sent to the blog. The owner of the IP at which the emails were read may surprise you.

The Human Rights Campaign.

I am stunned, to be honest. Somebody at HRC actually looked into their pants and found their balls. There's no way to tell at this point if this was a renegade staffer at HRC working on his own or part of an orchestrated top-down plan to hurt the Republicans in November. The person behind Stop October Surprises claims to know the exact person behind Stop Sex Predators. I attemped an email interview with him, but his responses were slightly obtuse and I suspect that English is not his first language. (UPDATE: English is his first language, he tells me he was merely rushing through a large volume of emails.)

Joe.My.God.: Has the HRC previously disavowed any knowledge of the Foley IM leak?
Stop October Surprises: to my knowledge, the HRC hasn't been implicated until now

JMG: Isn't it possible that the IMs were leaked internally at HRC without the knowledge of top management?
SOS: no comment.

JMG: And since the IMs were proven to be factual, ultimately how does it make a difference where they came from, as it's no secret that the HRC would like the Republican candidates to fail at election time?
SOS: not IMs, emails, stopsexpredators did not leak IM's. and to be precise, no one has proven anything to be factual, frankly, think about it... just because something is out there in the MSM doesn't make it a fact. fact is not equal to mass

JMG: How does Mike Rogers figure into this? Do you think that someone at HRC is feeding him the leaks? Does it matter where he gets his information, as long as it continues to be proven true?
SOS: read my initial blog entry to learn more of how i think. if politics is all about this bullshit, how will anything real get done? i guess we are talking human nature, what must wait for a crisis...

(Stop October Surprises rightfully corrected me that the initial leaks on Stop Sex Predators were emails, not IMs.)

Mike Rogers of BlogActive responded to the above, via email: Those seeking to locate the origins of the emails and instant message chats need look no further than Representative Alexander, Simkus and Reynolds. THEY are the ones that had them first and instead of taking responsibility for ignoring the needs of a 16 year old and placing priority on politics and now seek to confuse the electorate by pointing fingers. It won't work. The origins of the emails are, I believe, irrelevant. My greatest concern is that despite at least three Republican Hose members knowing about the emails, it still took a long time for law enforcement to be contacted. This isn't about October surprises. This is about a cover up... I commend all people responsible for putting this information out there.

With the current legal climate around these matters, I am unable to expand my remarks on the emails, other than to say, I had them before they were published and I was aware of the Instant Message chats before Mr. Foley's office offered to negotiate to keep them hidden from the public. Additionally, when I received the emails, my first move was to verify that they had already been turned over to law enforcement, which I confirmed they were.


So. What do we think about this? Death to the Republican agenda by any means, including anonymous leaks on blogs? Or embarassing dirty trick that may ultimately rob the gay movement of precious integrity? The fact that the Foley leaks did take down a shit-for-brains legislator cannot be discounted, but what will this mean for the HRC in the future? And what, if anything, will the HRC do to address the seemingly damning evidence unearthed by Stop October Surprises?

I will say this: If this all originated from the HRC, I'm impressed that they did something this bold and I'm disappointed that they did it in such an inept fashion.

-end-

Craigs Clams Up

If you were a powerful Republican senator who'd been falsely accused of cheating on your wife with men you'd met in train station restrooms, wouldn't you come out swinging against your accuser? Press conferences, lawyers, lawsuits, chat shows? Well, maybe you wouldn't, if you thought that the story would scarcely be touched by the MSM.

That's been largely the case so far, and today Mike Rogers at BlogActive is offering a $500 reward to anyone getting video of Senator Craig actually responding to the question: "Senator, you have had sex with one or more men in the last ten years?" Other than last week's one-sentence denial issued by Craig's office, the senator has not commented on his outing.

Subway Stats

A new sign in the subway today admonishes riders not to run for the train: "75% of passenger injuries are the result of slips and falls!" Injury stats were rounded out by a this graffito: "Stabbings: 1%. Stank: 24%."

Is Your Betty Ready?

You may recall me blogging about the Philips Bodygroom, the self-proclaimed first-ever trimmer for "down there" that promised men that reducing their amount of pubic hair would give them an "extra optical inch". Now comes Betty, the first-ever dye specifically for "the hair down there." Betty comes in five colors, including hot pink. You can also buy a "My Betty Is Ready" t-shirt, available in men's sizes L, XL. Sorry, but I'm not ready to see a XL pink Betty. Just totally not.

Morning View - Crystal Cathedral

Every block in midtown has at least one little tchotchke shop with dozens of crystal statues of NYC landmarks in their window. This one is on the 42nd Street side of Grand Central, where I'm told the World Trade Center items outsell all others 10-1. In the days immediately after 9/11, every souvenir in town depicting the WTC sold out, as people went rushing for postcards, framed skyline prints,keychains - anything with the Towers on it. I suppose they figured that retailers would cease using the WTC image, "in honor of the victims" or some psychobabble crap like that. Of course, as always, what retailers honor is tourists' money, so today you can buy WTC bottle openers and light switches. And tiny $89 crystal statues.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Two Week Notice

The mid-term elections are two weeks away. Looking over the statewide New York State ballot, it appears that I will be voting a straight-Democratic ticket: Spitzer, Patterson, Hevisi, Cuomo, Clinton. No surprises there. Sen. Hillary Clinton has an 88% approval rating from the HRC, although they probably held their nose while doing so, considering she still will not come out for gay marriage. My Congressperson, Carolyn Maloney, has a 100% rating. I have some issues with the HRC, as so many of us do, but tracking these votes is one thing they do very well. Learn your representative's rating.

The Human Rights Campaign derives these ratings from a short list of issues they deem critical to the gay community and how the representatives voted on each one. Sen. Clinton lost points for not yet co-sponsoring the Permanent Partners Immigration Act, which would allow same-sex partners to have the same immigration rights as legally wed Americans. Thus far, only 12 Democrats have signed on as co-sponsors. The Permanent Partners Act was recently renamed the "Uniting American Families Act", in an attempt to de-gay the legislation of that shimmeringly pink word, "partners". Ugh.

Here's hoping that in 15 days we'll wake up to a brighter, better America. I'm trying not to obsess too much, but I'll admit that the excitement of what could come has had me plotzing. Plotzing, I tells ya!

Zero Hour Poised With 3 Ovation Noms

My buddy Steve Schalchlin and his partner Jim Brochu have landed three Ovation nominations for Zero Hour, their new one man play about Broadway legend and multiple Tony winner Zero Mostel. Brochu, pictured, plays Mostel in a performance that has won raves from Variety, the Los Angeles Times and many other publications. Listen to an NPR story about the show here. If the names Schalchlin and Brochu seem familiar to you, it's because they won last year's Best Musical Ovation, for their show The Big Voice: God Or Merman?, which opens off-Broadway on November 30th at The Actor's Temple. Here's hoping Steve and Jim win another round of Ovations and get Zero Hour to Broadway, where it belongs! Good luck, Steve and Jim!

HomoQuotable - Reichen Lehmkuhl

"I was raped." - Reality show celebrittle Reichen Lehmkuhl telling Good Morning America that he was sexually assaulted by two fellow cadets while attending the U.S. Air Force Academy. "A bag was put over my head," he said. "I was stripped of my clothes. I was forced to do things sexually with two other male cadets." (Via 365gay.com.)

Not to diminish the gravity of what he says (and I'm sure many of your are already composing your snarky "I wish that could happen to ME" comments), Lehmkuhl's revelation does arrive with the release of his new book, Here's What We'll Say: Growing Up, Coming Out, and the U.S. Air Force Academy. The cynic in me would wager that book sales will be helped by those hoping for a titilating recounting of his assault. Lehmkuhl says he is hoping that his story will help lead to the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell".

PSB Continue Blitz of New Releases

The last few months have been a true bonanza for the hardcore fanboys, as the Pet Shop Boys have delivered four full CDs and a handful of b-side chocked singles. First, in June they dropped the Fundamental double-set, which returned the Boys to standard glorious form, after 2003's interesting, but ultimately unsatisfying experiment, Release. And yesterday I got my grubby little mitts on an advance copy of Concrete, a live double-CD recorded with the full BBC Concert Orchestra, which I blogged about back in June when the concert was streaming live online. And wow oh wow, this thing is fantastic! With guest vocalists Rufus Wainwright (Casanova In Hell) and Robbie Williams (Jealousy), and with Trevor Horn at the helm, Concrete is an absolute must-have for dedicated fans.

And in heavy rotation on my iPod all weekend was the second of two import CD-singles for Numb, which in addition to the video for Numb, debuts b-side Bright Young Things, originally recorded in 2003 for the movie of the same name, but never used on the soundtrack. In a matter of 48 hours, Bright Young Things has vaulted to very near the top of my all-time favorite PSB tracks, no mean feat. Bright Young Things is classic Tennant songwriting, layers upon layers of meaning. Gorgeous. Tragic. Tear-jerking. A stone PSB classic.

Pose for Steven's camera
Then dance with me
Forget what the future brings
Surrounded by bright young things
Sometimes the party's a port in a storm
No one is weary or lost and forlorn

Listen

The nightingale sings
In Berkeley Square
The bright young things
Are flying on chemical wings
Intent on their one last fling
Tonight


UPDATE: I neglected to mention my one continuous beef with the PSB. For Concrete, as with most of their releases, the type on the booklet is minuscule, virtually unreadable. And as is their very relentless custom, it's dark text on dark paper. ARRGH! So maddening. Dear PSB: Yes, we all love the gorgeously simple art of Mark Farrow, and have for decades. But please, some of us would actually like to read the essential information on your introspective liner notes. This is very bad behaviour. Whew, I needed that release.

Superdaddy And His Furryboy Harem

This photo from yesterday is pretty representative of our Sunday evenings. Superdaddy stands near the jukebox and rest of us are mere hairy manplanets in his powerful orbit. You can see how he hates it. And who would have thought that Lil Jon's Get Low would set an entire room of bears to wildly shakin' their groove thing?

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Justice

Review of Hot House porn video Justice, after the jump. Contains some relatively tame but possibly NSFW photos.



From Hot House, a San Francisco-based outfit that is successfully working the lightly-tread line between the pretty boys of Bel Ami and the hairy daddies of Titan Media, comes Justice, a 16-man round-bobbin' of fucking, fisting and lots of enormous dildo action. Starring uber-bottom Shane Rollins, Justice works the familiar gay porn prison milieu, working on themes of interrogation, rape, body cavity searches and joyous cellblock showtune singalongs. OK, maybe that last scene doesn't exist, but wouldn't it be great if it did?












Rollins' (above left) buttrape victim theatrics ("No! No! Stop! No, you can't I don't...well, OK.") are only outdone by sexycruel Robert Van Damme's (above right) probing (groan) interrogation technique. And I do love that precise moment at which the struggling turns into hunger.













Standouts among the large cast are hard to pick, but I particularly dug lone-furryman Ty Hudson (above left) and crew-cutted hottie Jordan Vaughn (above right). Rounding out the cast are: Brad Star, Carlos Morales, Duke Michaels, Kent North, Marc Williams, Marco Paris, Mike Roberts, Nick Horn, Nick Piston, Parker Williams, Tony Mecelli, and Trevor Knight.

For those tracking their pet fetish, Hot House materials list the following for Justice: Anal, Buttplay, Daddies, Dildos, Fisting, Foreskin, Group Sex, Hairy, Interracial, Oral, Rimming, Roleplay, Tattoos, Group Musical Theatre Singalong*, Uniforms.

*Again, not really. Dammit.