Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Photo Flashback: 2002

G.I. Joes: With the adorable Larry Brickman on Halloween 2002. We had so much fun that night. May he rest in peace.

The Great Pumpkin


Larry hopes your Halloween sack is filled with candy and no rocks ...

Bat Man

Cutie David Wright of the New York Mets will be on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart" tonight. I'm thinking this Batman and this Robin would make quite a dynamic duo.

Happy Halloween!

Without a doubt, Brody Jenner's Robin was the hottest costume of 2007 (or should I just say it -- hottest costume ever). But since I already posted it here's a worthy runner-up. Sexy Mario Lopez has me very excited about a return trip to the Coliseum ...

Morning Wood: Eric Hanson

Now unlike Jason Ridge, I am very familiar with sexy Eric Hanson's work. More pics -- including a few NSFWish ones -- after the jump. ----->

Page 1 Consider (10/31)

  • Ride the Ride: David Beckham assures us that Tom Cruise doesn't shove Scientology down his throat. (Of course not. He can't reach that high.) (DailyMail)

  • TransLoophole: If you're going to waste your time with organized "religion," then you gotta love those Methodists. They're letting a tranny pastor stay on board because UMC bars gays and lesbians from serving as clergy, but its rule book, called the Book of Discipline, does not include discussion of transsexual people. (Advocate)

  • Broken Record: Another anti-gay GOP fag? Yep. This time it's Washington State Rep Richard Curtis, whose credits include opposing gay civil union legislation and employment non-discrimination initiatives. And he didn't even have the decency to not parade around town looking like a member of the Village People. (Queerty)

  • Wide Net for Wide Stance: A sting aimed a men who cruise a rest area off Interstate 684 in tony Bedford, N.Y. (Martha Stewart country), for gay sex resulted in charges against 20 men in the past month, including a Catholic priest and a registered sex offender. With the exception of the priest, all 19 of the men are married. But guess how many of the men identify as being gay. (NONE!) (LoHud)

  • Cold Cash: Elvis is still the King. Presley, who earned an estimated $49 million in the past 12 months, has reclaimed the No. 1 spot on Forbes.com's list of Top-Earning Dead Celebrities. He last topped the list in 2005. John Lennon ranks second with earnings of $44 million, followed by Charles M. Schulz ($35 million), George Harrison ($22 million), Albert Einstein ($18 million), Andy Warhol ($15 million), Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) ($13 million), Tupac Shakur ($9 million), Marilyn Monroe ($7 million), Steve McQueen ($6 million), James Brown ($5 million), Bob Marley ($4 million) and James Dean ($3.5 million). (AP)

  • No Surprises: President Bush met at the White House on Tuesday with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni for talks that focused on trade, HIV/AIDS but seemingly ignored alleged human rights abuses of gays and lesbians. (365Gay)

  • Nips and Tucks: For its fifth season, FX's "Nip/Tuck" has a fresh look. Not any major work; just a few nips and tucks, including a move to the City of Angels. Is it a good idea? Jump/Shark? The L.A. Times checks out nine established shows that received "makeovers" to see how they fared. (LAT)

  • Define 'Came': Depending on which article you read assessing the exact same data, we now know that HIV did /didn't come to the United States by way of Haiti.

  • Whorebivore: Jerry Seinfeld told David Letterman that his wife, Jessica, isn't guilty of "vegetable plagiarism" for including recipes remarkably similar to another woman's in her new cookbook, "Deceptively Delicious." Oddly, he said nothing about picking her up on her first honeymoon. (AP)

  • Queen of Hearts: Viscount David Linley, a furniture maker and the Queen of England's nephew, has been identified as the likely target of the gay sex tape extortion plot by socialite Ian Strachan and his accomplice Sean McGuigan. (Towleroad)


  • Dolly Would: Dolly Parton is one of the most talented (and underrated) musicians to ever walk this planet. She's also one hell of a nice woman. (AP)

  • What a Drag

    Sarah Jessica Parker and Kim Cattrall on location for "Septogenarians and the City: The Movie" in Midtown Manhattan. If you think this is scary wait till the movie comes out -- on the big screen. We're used to seeing them 5-10 years younger on the small screen.

    Jonathan Rhys Meyers Does Details

    The Irish actor looking sexy in the new issue of Details.

    Tuesday, October 30, 2007

    Stroller Mania

    The Times has a great Page 1 article today about the state of gay ghettos: "These are wrenching times for San Francisco’s historic gay village, with population shifts, booming development, and a waning sense of belonging that is also being felt in gay enclaves across the nation, from Key West, Fla., to West Hollywood, as they struggle to maintain cultural relevance in the face of gentrification." It dovetails nicely off my earlier post. (NYT)


    UPDATE: On my way home from meeting Mikey for lunch I walked past this new residential building going up around the corner from my apartment in Chelsea. Although it is undoubtedly illegal for them not to promote an "everyone is welcome" image in their promotional materials, it seems almost unimaginable that something like this would have existed when I moved here a decade ago.

    As my friend Jesse pointed out, 10 years ago this drawing would have been of "a tranny, a fag and their midget sex slave."

    Morning Wood: Carlos

    Buenos dias to you, too!

    'It's Picture Time'

    With John Bolger, Yolande Bavan and Richard Ganoung

    Some of you are probably wondering if I'm ever going to shut up about my cat or the film "Parting Glances." Larry will probably be around for another 15-20 years, but last night's premiere party for the restored version of Bill Sherwood's seminal 1986 film about a gay couple's impending separation and their close-knit group of friends in mid-'80s Manhattan might be hard to top.

    With Richard Wall and Matt Rettenmund, left, and with Yolande Bavan and Kathy Kinney

    As I've come to discover, I was far from the only young gay man whose life was greatly touched by this slice-of-life gay film. (Newfest board member Josh Rosenzweig told me his quest for love has been forever tainted by his lifelong search to find his own Robert!) But what might make my experience slightly different is that it was actually part of an "introduction to being gay" video double feature. You see, my childhood best friend in Michigan (we met in sixth grade camp under a tree avoiding the dodge ball competition of the day) was the first of our big group of friends to finally take the plunge and come out of the closet. (Eventually, every single guy we knew came out and 25-plus years later I still get e-mails from peripheral friends who have come across my blog coming out to me!) I'll never forget that phone call from Mark during the holidays in 1986. We were both 19 and while I knew something had to give, the second he said the words I felt sick and realized life as I knew it was never going to be the same. If it had been a made-for-TV movie I would have, "Me, too!" and we'd have gotten together and had a nice long talk followed by a big hug. But alas life is rarely like a movie and it would be another six months or so before I could process what was happening. Still, by the time I was heading back to Detroit (from Phoenix) for my annual pilgrimage "home" for the summer, I was at least finally ready to admit to Mark that I was "bi." (Cue the laugh track. Like you didn't try that for awhile, too.) At the beginning of that summer (1987) I had gone to London with a friend and then on to Paris to attend the French Open. (I met a 16-year-old kid named Andre Agassi, and Steffi Graf won her first Grand Slam title that year.) Being away from Arizona and in big cities I was beginning to notice guys noticing me, but I was still not ready and would panic whenever I felt like something gay was gong on. When I finally got to Detroit later in the summer it my first experience being around an openly gay guy, period (he just happened to be my best friend). And it was the first time I was allowed to be open about who I was (even if 50 percent of my thoughts were supposedly on gettin' me some pussy).

    The first thing Mark did was pop in his videocassette of "Parting Glances." He told me how it was the greatest film he'd ever seen and how it had helped him understand what it meant to be a gay man. From the opening scene with the young men going back to their apartment and rolling around on the bed together I was mesmerized. I couldn't get over how everybody was so comfortable being who they were. No one was "coming out" to anyone. No mothers were crying. No one was apologizing for who they were. I instantly saw myself in the Michael character and was completely smitten with his boyfriend, the Robert character (who wasn't?). No sooner had we finished the film Mark pulled out this letter he'd gotten from Richard Ganoung, aka Michael. Mark had written to him to tell him how much the film had helped him with his coming out ordeal and he'd actually gotten a handwritten response (Can you imagine?!!). For the first time since I could remember I felt like everything was going to be OK.
    But the evening didn't stop there. Although "Parting Glances" wasn't shy about depicting affection between the two male lovers (remember the shower scene?), it was a mainstream -- albeit low-budget -- movie, after all. So most of what you saw was implied. Next up on Mark's double feature? "Powertool," Jeff Stryker's 1986 prison classic. While young men and porn might normally go together like peanut butter and jelly, for a young gay guy whose life had been completely sheltered like mine was, the idea of seeing two guys have sex was more than just titillating -- it was like having a preview of the brave new world. How do men have sex, anyway? What exactly goes on? The second Mark popped the tape in and this blond, curly haired guy named Johnny Davenport (NSFWish photo here) got down to business with his cellmate, Michael Gere, all of my questions were answered -- and then some.
    (Call it a fetish, but to this day John Davenport (above) -- who is by all most measures not my "type" -- still makes me weak in the knees and makes me feel like I'm 20 years old again.)

    The only way finally meeting Richard Ganoung, John Bolger, Kathy Kinney ("Joan") , Yolande Bavan ("Betty") and the irrespressible Richard Wall ("Douglas") and getting to learn a bunch of new information about the creators of this life-changing film tonight could have been more of a thrill would have been if Johnny D. had been waiting in my bed for me when I got home. It was truly a night to remember ...

    (Bonus points to the first person besides Matt who identifies this posts headline!)

    Is That Bobby Brown?

    As much as we city folks like to complain about gentrification (too many Starbucks, too many Pottery Barns), sometimes things aren't quite gentrified enough. Ask my friend Keith who lives in a million-dollar row house in the city that brought us Marion Barry. Link is explicit, vile, shocking and definitely not suitable for work or children. (Read: the reason blogs were invented.)

    Diamond Life

    I want to wish everybody over at Instinct magazine a very happy 10th anniversary! While the frisky gay pub will always have a special place in my heart for being the first to publish any of my nonfiction work, I've actually been a longtime fan long before that happened. I can still remember seeing it for the first time and thinking, "This is what Out and Genre should be" and convincing a bunch of my friends to check it out by describing it as "the gay Cosmo." Although blogs and other Web sites have increasingly pulled most of us away from print media, I still subscribe to Instinct and when my article came out earlier this year I found out so do many other people. Congrats on 10 years -- and here's looking forward to 10 more!

    Legends of the Fall

    Paul McCartney and Deborah Harry -- from two of my all-time favorite bands -- with Stella and Mary McCartney at the Adidas by Stella McCartney presentation and launch of the Spring/Summer 2008 collection in Westway Sports Hall, London, England. Interestingly, the Beatles' debut, "Please Please Me" came out 13 years before Blondie's eponymous debut, yet Paul's just three years older than Deb (they both look pretty darn good). If Paul would consider dating an age-appropriate woman for a change I think we'd have the ultimate First Couple of Pop Music, although Paul might be a little too wacky for Deb's taste. Can't wait for Debbie's solo show next month at Irving Plaza!

    Monday, October 29, 2007

    Brody Jenner: Trick or Treat?

    Sexy Brody Jenner and his replacement BFF, Frankie Delgado (the anti-Spencer), make a cute Robin and Batman. But it's what's hanging out of Robin's, um, utility belt that has me dreaming of a romp back at the Batcave. Might this be why Lauren Conrad keeps hanging on for more? (Photos by Mr. Nunez/BuzzFoto)

    Morning Wood: Tyler

    Lots more pictures of supersexy Tyler over at Fantasticsmag.

    (Photos by Lindsay Lozon. Grooming by Jodi Thibodeau. Styling by Reid & Nixon.)

    Page 1 Consider (10/29)

  • Greatest American Hero: Larry Flynt, editor and publisher of Hustler magazine, just told FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto that he’s “hoping to expose a bombshell” that will stand “Washington and the country on its head.” Within the next week or two, he says his magazine will expose a sex scandal of huge proportions involving a prominent United States Senator. Flynt refused to comment on the Senator’s political affiliation, but alluded that he or she is a Republican. (I'm chomping at the bit!) (BigHeadDC)

  • Singing a New Tune: Last night, about two dozen gay and lesbian group supporters marched and carried a rainbow flag outside a rally for Barack Obama that featured ex-gay gospel singer Donnie McClurkin. (AP)

  • Model Behavior? Maybe he's not the most smartest model after all. Andre Birleanu, 25, of Manhattan -- who has earned a reputation as a volatile hothead on the VH1 reality show "America's Most Smartest Model" -- was charged with sexual misconduct and aggravated harassment for a sex attack in which he allegedly groped a 19-year-old actress during a fashion party at a posh downtown restaurant, authorities said. (NYP)

  • Nazi Court: To understand this 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, people have a constitutional right based on his religious freedom to profess their hatred and disapproval of gays and lesbians even in public school. So can someone say the same about blacks, Hispanics and Jews if their religion doesn't "approve" of them, too? (AP)

  • Crack Is Whack: No one is more in favor of making this saggy jeans "fad" go away more than I am (since when do fads last 10 years?). But I'm not sure even I can support the city of Dallas' mew ad campaign to get guys to pull their pants up by promoting the idea that saggy drawers are known as invitation to be ass-raped in prison. (NPR) (Check out the rap song that "inspired" the campaign.)

  • Family 'Values': A mother of four asking her uncle to provide temporary foster care for her children while she undergoes drug rehab should be of no concern to anyone but her and her uncle. Unless that uncle cohabits with another man and lives in Utah. (Advocate)

  • Slit My Wrists: Are you as tired as I am of the whole world making up retarded new words for vaginas? Oprah Winfrey asked her audience, "I think vajayjay is a nice word, don’t you?" and now the Sunday Styles section has an article devoted to the topic. I always thought vagina did the trick (so to speak). (NYT)

  • The Evita Factor: It wasn't that long ago the air in Buenos Aires was heavy with anguish prompted by a collapsing national economy. Now, it seems the breeze is filled with the tunes of tango, and men's cologne. The Argentinean capital is riding high on a tourist boom -- one that relies in part on two new kinds of visitors: tango students, and gays. (Fin24)

  • Move Over, Tinky Winky: Is Dumbledore Gay? Depends on your definitions of "is" and "gay." (NYT)

  • Everything but the Kitchen Sink: Sen. Larry Craig will now argue before an appeals court that Minnesota's disorderly conduct law is unconstitutional as it applies to his conviction in a bathroom sex sting, according to a new court filing. This is the first time Craig's attorneys have raised that issue. However, an earlier friend-of-the-court filing by the American Civil Liberties Union argued that Craig's foot-tapping and hand gesture under a stall divider at the Minneapolis airport are protected by the First Amendment. (AP)

  • Lucky Charm: Barry Meegan, a player with the Emerald Warriors gay rugby club and "Mr. Emerald Warriors," has been crowned the new Mr. Gay Ireland. Last night, he beat off competition from 21 other finalists from all over Ireland -- north and south -- to take the title. (UKGayNews)

  • Roll Call: Five additional members of the House, all Democrats, have signed on as co-sponsors of the Military Readiness Enhancement Act of 2007 (HR 1246), which would repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy that prohibits openly gay or lesbian Americans from serving in the armed forces. (PageOneQ)
  • Jakey, Are You Queer?

    My (lucky) friend Mark went to a CD release party/concert last night in Hollywood for Josie Cotton's latest, "Invasion of the B-Girls," a collection of songs from bad movies that has John Waters proclaiming that Josie "has made the unlistenable unforgettable." (You might recall I posted the first single/video off the album, "Maneaters (Get Off the Road") last month.)

    The party was at the Key Club on the fabulous Sunset Strip and who should be in the joint but one Jake Gyllenhaal, who appeared to be there with Trudie Styler and Robert Downey Jr. to see the "Chaplin" star's 14-year-old son, Indio, perform with his band, The Jack Bambis, as an opening act for Josie.

    It's been more than 25 years since Josie debuted on the scene, but as you will see in the "Johnny, Are You Queer?" clip below, she's still got it. For you hard-core fans, Mark says she even did "Systematic Way" off her 1982 classic, "Convertible Music"!!! 


    Adam Levine: Tattooed (Prison) Love Boy

    Here are some pics from the steamy director's cut of Maroon 5's new single, "Wake Up Call." I'm not a huge fan of the band's music, but with a lead singer like Adam Levine, it's hard not to love their videos -- especially when Adam can't seem to keep his shirt on. (I think the director needs to re-think this thing and explore Adam's prison bitch days.) Watch the full video below:


    (Hat tip to TheBigBadBlog)