Evening View - Provincetown

Bear Proposal At Comic-Con!

Standing ovation! Get the tissues!

(Tipped by JMG reader Pope Buck)

James Corden Goes Bear-Hunting

Who Is Fancy - Goodbye

After months of internet puzzling and dozens of YouTube cover versions of the single Goodbye, the mystery artist known as Who Is Fancy unveiled himself last night. As it turns out, Fancy is a somewhat fey bear.

Who is Fancy? Don’t worry, we all know who Fancy is now. Last night (April 7), the mysterious artist behind the track “Goodbye” revealed himself on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. It turns out Who is Fancy is actually 23-year-old Nashville-based singer/songwriter Jake Hagood, who is signed by Scooter Braun, manager to both Justin Bieber and Carly Rae Jepsen. The big reveal was done with a bit of theatrics though. Before Hagood took the stage, a group of different singers took turns singing lines from the first verse eventually ending with Hagood, who turned around and finally answered who the heck Fancy is.

This Friday: Furball In Times Square

Furball continues its exile to Times Square on Friday. Always mobbed, always a wild time.  Get tickets here. More details on their Facebook event page.

Meet The Bears Of Sweet Paul

The foodies among you may already be familiar with Sweet Paul, which began years ago as Paul Lowe's personal cooking blog and has since grown to become a wildly popular print and online magazine. Lowe (above left, also known as "the gay Martha Stewart") does the kitchen work while the business side of the enterprise is handled by "the other Paul" - my longtime pal Paul Vitale. The fifth anniversary issue of Sweet Paul launches next week and I'm just the worst friend ever not to have mentioned them before now. And hey, they've even put out a well-received cookbook, Sweet Paul: Eat & Make. Join their 70,000 fans on Facebook.

Rachel Maddow Interviews "High-Tech Bears" Who Own Jeb Bush Web Domain

Rachel Maddow Explains What Bears Are: America's Happiest Gay Subculture

At the 11:00 mark. If you can't get the MSNBC clip to play there's a low-rez version on YouTube.

(Tipped by JMG reader Robbie)

SUNDAY: Furball In Manhattan

Furball continues its exile from the LGBT Center this Sunday at BPM in Times Square. Advance tickets are on sale here. Always a mob scene.

New From The Island House

Staffers here at the Island House let me know that they've created a bear-centric parody of a recent underwear commercial partially filmed on their property.

The Island House Key West extends a warm welcome to all types of gay men, regardless of body type! Unlike our wonderful friends at Andrew Christian, we don't all have chiseled abs and perfect pectoral muscles. So here's our fun-filled parody video showcasing some of the fun and outrageousness that is welcome by anybody on an average day at Island House!

Tom Goss - All About The Bass

This is the second gay cover we've gotten this week.

Devin Totter - All About That Bass

(Tipped by JMG reader Jari)

MRF - Trying

Lovely soulful jazz. With musclebears. The bear keyboardist is Mike "MRF" Flanagan, the title artist. His current release, Mob Music, recently topped the iTunes jazz chart and is streaming in full on Spotify. Flanagan is quoted in the press materials:

"This is the most personal song (and favorite) I've ever written, so I wanted the video to be the same. It was also really important to me to give visibility to the bear community in a jazz/urban/mainstream song and in a light that captures the love and relationship side as well as the heartbreak/breakup side. I've never seen a video that depicts a breakup with bears in the narrative. My goal was to embody the beauty of the normal parts of a relationship; intimacy and day-to-day and what "trying" to grieve that feels like visually and musically. My mission is for this story to reach as many people as possible and hopefully open the eyes of many who have never seen or thought about this kind of narrative."

TRAILER: Bears

SUNDAY: Furball In Times Square

Furball continues its exile to Times Square on Sunday as remodeling continues at the LGBT Center.  Always mobbed, always a wild time.  Get tickets here.  See more details on the event's Facebook page.

Engage!

Via Reddit: "I proposed to my boyfriend yesterday on the bridge of the Enterprise, he said yes and I couldn't be happier." (Tipped by JMG reader Ray)

The 2 Bears - Not This Time

I've posted tracks by these guys before, but here's some background in case you missed that. 

Raf Rundell and Hot Chip's Joe Goddard, who are both straight, call themselves the 2 Bears in homage of the gay subculture mostly because they fit the bill aesthetically but also as homage to the vanguards of the dance music they love. "We have huge respect for the pioneers of house music and nightclubbing-- some of them were gay," Rundell, aka DJ Raf Daddy, said an interview.

This clip definitely continues their queer aesthetic.

(Tipped by JMG reader Bob)

CVS Ad Features Bear Couple

CVS has ceased selling cigarettes and their new ad about that change features a fleeting glimpse of a handsome bear couple at the 0:25 mark.

(Tipped by JMG reader Matt)

NORWAY: Seattle Bear Competes In Reality Show About Norwegian-Americans

JMG reader Mark writes to tell us that his husband Guy is competing on the fifth season of Alt For Norge, a reality show in which Norwegian-Americans are brought to Norway for their first time. Contestants compete in various tasks around the country and meet their long-lost relatives. According to Wikipedia, the show is marketed in the USA as The Great Norway Adventure, but I can't find any listings for domestic broadcasts. Guy was introduced to viewers this week with the clip below.

TRAILER: Barba Rija

JMG reader Gerard tips us to the Portuguese bear series Barba Rija (Rough Beard). Three episodes have gone up in the last couple of weeks: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3.  The clips are subtitled in English - click play then the CC button.