Vancouver's Prim Reaper speaks: "Has Manhunt Destroyed Gay Culture?"

Two nights ago, a good friend of mine sent me a link to one of the most interesting articles on gay culture that I've read in years...perhaps ever. I've had to take some time to think about it and what it says about being gay and gay culture. According to the author, things aren't looking good...

The article is courtesy of out.com, which, for your information, is in direct competition with Manhunt. Although I have reservations about the politics behind Out publishing this article, I don't have the same reservations about what is being said.

I've even heard that Manhunt is about to launch a new site, just for bottoms. They are calling it "Mancunt".

Okay no. I stole that joke from Billeh Nickerson, but you'd almost believe it after reading the original article.

What are your thoughts? Send them to vancouvergayblog@gmail.com or comment on this post. I will anonymously post them in a future post.

What are my thoughts?

Now it's a well-known fact in some social circles that I am the Prim Reaper. In fact if you took:

and added a little bit of this guy:

(shudder - yes that is picture George W Bush oogling an Olympic beach volleyball player)

you'd end up with something that looked a little bit like this:

(me)

Prim Reaper. Serial monogamist. I've been called a lot of things in my day. Which is interesting when you look at my name. Horlor...hmm...even as my blog rival (Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops) recently pointed out, my last name seems to lend itself to easy (and I mean easy) jokes: horny, whore, whore lure, horny horror...if you can think it, I have heard it at least once this lifetime. Trust me.

I do prefer meeting people the following way over the Manhunt way though:



Yes, yes, it's old fashioned. And the video clip I use to illustrate my point is ten minutes long. Ten minutes long?!? Why that's longer than most one night stands! (yes, I am retiring that line after this post). And on top of all that, they aren't even speaking English. But it gives me hope, gentlemen. Hope that North American TV will eventually catch up its European counterpart. Hope that from some, romance is still preferred over a quick anonymous fuck.

Tuesday Hotness: Jared Connaughton

I've let the ball (or balls?) drop on the hotness files here. So I'm going to make it a regular Tuesday feature. I promise. Tuesdays are hard. So is this guy:
Hello? Have YOU been watching the Olympics? I saw PEI's Jared Connaughton run yesterday and swear to god and baby jesus on the cross: my pants jumped right off my legs and ran out the apartment door.

Not for public use? Pffft. Quit bossing me around, "not for public use" boss. You don't know me.

You're number one in my books, Jared, so go ahead and kick some ass in your semis tomorrow. And if you need a "writer" to help sort out your crazy Beijing experiences into a bare-all...fine, I mean tell-all... biography, or you know, someone to come lift weights from time to time, I'm your man: call me!

Vancouver Queer Film Festival - Bangkok Love Story

After a hit-and-miss weekend, I was happy to head down to the Vancity Theatre tonight and continue the film-high that came with the kick-off to Vancouver Queer Film Festival's 20th anniversary.

I tagged Bangkok Love Story as one of my must-sees in my Xtra! West column last week and I know it is supposed to be a tradgedy, but I would tell anyone considering a trip to see the second screening on Wednesday to walk in with "romantic comedy" on their mind. Sure there was the HIV story line (which was hard hitting), prostitution, multiple unrequited loves and more tradgedy during the movie's running time than you could shake a limp dick at, but seriously folks, who could forget the romantic peek-a-boo scene, genitals being creatively blocked out by fresh visual metaphors like poles, sexy bathing, the butterfly chimes/tattoos (as my good friend Amanda coined: Mariah Carey co-producing...anyone? anyone?)...the list could go on.

Should I say it?

No. I shouldn't.

But I am going to say it anyway:

The plot had more holes than swiss chesse (heeeeyooo!)

On another note: written and directed by Poj Arnon, the film deconstructs Thai gay stereotypes by dipicting two masculine gay men falling in love overtop a standard action/thriller plot line. The cinematography alone is worth your dollars. Here are some stills:

What do I mean by "masculine" and Thai stereotypes? Well, I'm glad you asked...

My ex and I spent nearly four months in South East Asia this past fall/winter, mostly in Bangkok and also in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Wherever we went, the Thais would inevitably ask us: "So which one is the woman?" I would joke and say it was my ex and the Thai girls would laugh (word to the wise: few things can make a temper flare in 40C weather faster than an attack on your manhood) and then we'd all go and buy a few more litres of Beer Chang from the grocery store and drink them on the street and bygones were bygones and onward went the trip. Curious what I'm talking about? Take a look:

(Those two photos are probably enough to make you happy you weren't travelling with me, eh?)

What's the point of this long personal anecdote?

As you may have guessed, there isn't one.

No wait. There is. Thai mainstream culture accepts homosexuality, but stereotypically, it's one a level of man + lady-boy. This film breaks that converntion, though does it in Thai style: melodramically, with an ear-drum-popping accompaniment of sugary Thai ballads. And of course, the smoldering Chaiwat Thongsaeng spends most of the movie in his underwear, so even if you can't take the paint-by-numbers dialogue, stop reading the subtitles and focus on this:

If you've been to Bangkok, Bangkok Love Story will bring back memories (it reminded me of Thong Lor and Sukhumvit districts and throughout the movie, I swear I could hear the BTS Skytrain attendant announcing: Nana)

There is a second screening this Wednesday. Take the time to go see it.

In other news: the websmaster at Right Up Your Alley: Kamloops and I have called a truce. He apologizes and I'm offering him the same...and hell, I've even added him to the blogroll. In light of all that drama, there may be some changes coming to our format here. I'll keep you posted.

Honey Dijon also graced Vancouver with a stellar perfomace on Saturday night at the Majestic. I managed to chat with her mid-set (she's as gorgeous as she is talented). Thanks to Tommy D and Richard for the good times. Here she is:
Lastly, MLA-hopeful Spencer Herbert was on the corner of Davie and Bute today talking up his campaign. Check out his website: www.spencerherbert.ca. Check out his platform. This guy is the real deal.

Get out and see some films, y'all!

We all know what comes out of a one-way alley...

I'd like to take a moment to take you, loyal Right Up Your Alley: Vancouver's Gay Blog reader, on a trip back in time to May 2008, when the street people combing Vancouver's many alleys still had a Spring spring to their step, when Britney Spears was still riding high on her choice to wear panties again, when I still thought owning shorts that fell above the knee was something to be celebrated and/or photographed, when whoremones were a quality I attributed to the strangers who always ask "what are you doing after [insert club name here]?" around 1pm on the dancefloor versus (as I've recently discovered) a quality that most of humankind seems to inherently possess.

Those were the salad days. I was younger then. With a one-pack stomach waiting to be mocked. And my undying love for all things Bai Ling had not yet been quenched.

Ah who's kidding who. My Bai Ling fire will never be put out.

What you probably don't know, dear reader, is that I spent 6 weeks (that's 42 days - a long time in a freelancer's life) in negotiation with Xtra! West and Xtra! Capital over the name for a blog. Sure we dreamed big. I searched far and wide and then wider for the perfect name to capture all things queer in Vancouver. From New York to Bangkok to Brasilia, I pitched friends with blog names designed to fish-hook the eye into a love affair it would never forget.

Nothing was out of bounds:

Bars, Clubs, Whips and Chains?

Bright Lights, Big Twinky?

Gay Everyday?

Stick It In Me Raw?

We compiled a list of 40 names. And then a short list. And then a short-short list. And then votes poured in from all across the country. Queers everywhere were uniting in a way I haven't seen since my coming out party in Victoria back in 2001. There was laughter. There were tears. Somebody even got laid. But when the dust settled, we chose Right Up Your Alley: Vancouver's Gay Blog as the banner to unite Vancouver queers online.

And then we did our homework too: Googled online for blogs of a similar name and ilk. We even checked BestGayBlogs in case some other crafty homo had beat me to it. There were no hits to be found and hence, a new golden age of blogging commenced in this mighty West Coast metropolis I'm proud to call home.

Fast forward to July 2008, when a woman in Victoria heckled me during a literary reading over the name of the very blog you're reading right now (in case you forgot: Right Up Your Alley: Vancouver's Gay Blog).

Fast forward again to the dizzying highs (John Mayer, Zima) and depth-defying lows (the Jarics' infamous "performance malfunction", Stephen Harper).

And now let's fast forward to the lowest of all lows: there is another Right Up Your Alley blog in British Columbia...and it is not good (...significant pause...) news for Vancouver.

You can imagine my surprise opening my email account this morning to find that the webmaster of that other site had taken the low road and panned my own career along with this blog. Admittedly (and all high horses aside), social media equates a loss of privacy, so I'm getting what I asked for, aren't I?

Yet instead of sending me an investigative email to discuss (like adults) an unfortunate coincidence, he posted this: http://www.rightupyouralley.ca/kamloops/2008/08/one-way-only.html.

And although I'm normally not one to stoop down and sling shit (which, for everyone's reference, is what comes out of the one-way alley), the bar has been lowered. Thast said, I believe that in the world of blogs, all publicity is good publicity.

That other blogger also sent me the following rhymes:

How can I express

The profound distress

I experienced this week

When instead of unique...

I discovered my blog name

And yours are the same!

I've been toiling away

Four hundred and seventeen days

To build an identity

With local amenity

But the alias I treasure

Is now contested, I measure

Is there a way to resolve

In some way that involves

A reasonable solution

To this blogging confusion?

The alternative might be

A Kamloops blog eugoogooly

Regardless of my suspiscion that is a dig at the fact that I have published a book through an actual publishing house, I submitted the above poem to readers who have sent me fashion photos at vancouvergayblog.blogspot.com for comment.

Here's what one Right Up Your Alley: Vancouver's Gay Blog reader had to say: "Rhyming such as this is juvenile and always insulting (especially to anyone with half a brain who enjoys real literature)"

Furthermore, the author of this "poem" should consider submitting it to: earlyed@vancouver.cbc.ca because, as another reader informed me, they are looking for literary gems like this.

Thank you, Barry Something-Or-The-Other. I love your stance as the blogger who "loves journalism, is not a journalist. Loves politics, is not a politician." And loved you even more during your stint doing whatever it is you do to make your life work.

Rest assured, my Kamloops counterpart, if I could turn back time and change this blog handle, I would do so in order to not be associated with you in any way whatsoever, especially since this posting: http://www.rightupyouralley.ca/kamloops/2008/08/one-way-only.html attaches my name to homophobic jokes that still--despite years of combatting hate and discrimination--make me physically sick.

However, since gays haven't yet invented time travel (emphasis on yet), I will have to console myself with web traffic that has mistaken this site for yours. Who knows. We may both expose our blog readers to ideas they wouldn't normally entertain.

Agree or disagree, my Kamloops counterpart, this is a good thing.

Queerywood

I love that Vancouverites frequently have the audacity to come out en force and celebrate the talent in our city the way it's meant to be celebrated: on a red carpet, with enough style and penache to make even the most hard-hearted of us all pre-determined to capture and demand the attention of the hottest flames and dames in our city and make a scene to remember.
The opening gala of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival was crackalacking tonight. And with the 30C weather and humidity reminiscent of a swelting New York night, this city's filmerati were prepared to bring the heat to the Empire Theatre in the Granville entertainment district and kick the thermostat up a couple degrees higher.

And the after party at Celebrities was something else. The fashion installations featured the work of local corsetiere Melanie Talkington, of Lace Embrace Atelier on Main and 16th. Here's a photo I snapped between swilling SKYY Vodka and being hand-fed chocolate covered strawberries by a local hearthrob:

I'll have a full review of tonight's screening of Like A Virgin posted here tomorrow night. In the meantime, check out www.queerfilmfestival.ca for a complete day-by-day guide of the festival. Get out, get your membership (for a low $2), get some tickets and support some of the most innovative and brilliant queer cinema to hit Vancouver in years.

If you want to feel 20 again, celebrate VQFF's anniversary with the best this city has to offer.

As VQFF Executive Director Drew Dennis explained: "Our goal is to grow and increase queer development in our community."

Trust me: they've done it. Wait til you see how.

"Leave Sir Ian McKellen's cock alone"

I've had more technical difficulties on uploading to this blog than I've had sexual partners. And trust me, the hours I spend trying to unsuccessfully coerce and cajole blogspot.com to open up and take my posts remind more of a "performance malfunction" than of a mutually beneficial relationship, where everyone's needs are being met on a timely and satisfactory manner, five days a week, come rain, come shine or just plain come.

I thought tennis superstar and soon-to-be-world-number-one Rafael Nadal was my new boyfriend, but it's looking more and more like Right Up Your Alley and I are entering a codependent relationship that echoes the many codependent relationships of my recent past.

That said, the new SCORE I was writing about on my last post...it's an eye-popper. They've revamped Davie's favourite sports bar into an uber-swank lounge with one of the largest public plasma TV screens in Canada.

Here's the new GM giving a snapshot of what you can expect from SCORE's new concept and their new private lounge:



To tide you over until I can post photos again, here's a column from the one, the only: Billeh Nickerson. You can check out his Art Fag column online at www.xtra.ca:

Leave Sir Ian McKellen's cock alone ART FAG / Americans should worry about the true pricks on TV Billeh Nickerson / Xtra.ca / Tuesday, July 22, 2008

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You've got to love Americans. During a time of record oil prices, mortgage and financial uncertainties, an upcoming election and a pair of sticky wars that just won't go away, some folks are already bracing for the scandal of PBS broadcasting a full-frontal nude scene from one of our generation's most respected thespians. (I say thespian and not actor as when I was little and used to lisp, thespian sure sounded like lesbian.) Yes, Magneto himself, Sir Ian McKellen, may or may not have his naughty bits broadcast on public television when PBS airs the filmed version of King Lear in early 2009. Though almost six months away, people are already curious to see just what the thinking person's network will do with his 69-year-old cock. If the FCC freaked out at Janet Jackson's infamous Super Bowl nipple (which, according to the New York Times, has had its early fine against CBS thrown out by an appeals court) what are they going to do with about a 69-year-old wiener? Perhaps they will try to bitmap (those small black boxes) his crotch. Perhaps they will place the PBS logo down there or just cut out the scene entirely. Nothing like censoring that filthy minded Shakespeare, eh? If the possible cock show were from a Republican-supporting actor, then I doubt that anyone would care, but the cock in question is a foreign gay cock, second only to Al-Qaeda cock as the most un-American and dangerous. Quite frankly, if people want to see cock so badly that they'll sit through hours of iambic pentameter, then let them. I highly doubt that 12 year olds will take the time to see a Shakespearian play let alone get corrupted by one. If folks are so worried about children seeing naked older men then they should work at banning public swimming pool change rooms. All this cock talk makes me think back to the years where I'd watch the French channel under the guise of improving my French Immersion learned French. I didn't understand a lot of what was being said, though I did see a lot of breasts and bums. A few cocks even. And I learned to love French Canadians. We're so bloody uptight in English Canada. The other day I saw a clip on CBC where George Stroumboulopoulos (as long as I have a face, he'll always have a chair) called someone an asshole during his interview with Margaret Cho, but the CBC bleeped "asshole" out when she used it to refer to her own asshole. They also bleeped "pussy." Apparently a full-body asshole is acceptable, but an asshole-sized asshole is offensive. God help us if Quebec separates. The only porn we'll be able to watch is a bunch of Alberta oil wells spurting. I hope that English Canadian television doesn't become more like it's neighbours to the South. And I hope Americans start to worry about the true pricks on US television. Leave Sir Ian's prick alone.

Who doesn't like to SCORE?

The day gay sports bars stop thinking that every gay man enjoys watching other men doing athletic, physical things on huge plasma screens is a day I hope I won't live to see.

Good news: it's the Summer Olympics right now. If you turn on your television, you'll most likely be greated by the following:

And of course my new boyfriend:

More good news: everyone's favourite sports bar on Davie - SCORE - is doubling their floor space and their patio.

Doubling can be fun. For example:

DoubleMint Gum

Double penetration

Double-o-seven (especially when played by:)

Everytime I see this Daniel Craig photo my brain flatlines. Which I'll take as a sign to stop writing for tonight. If you've got some time Wednesday night, come down to the new SCORE at 7pm. They're hosting a grand opening night and you should be there:

MEDIA ADVISORY/PHOTO OPPORTUNITY

Davie's only sport bar hosts grand opening to celebrate renovations, doubling their space and patio

SCORE on Davie is inviting the community to a grand re-opening party for the newest, best and only neighbourhood-inclusive sports bar in the West End.

SCORE on Davie (http://scoreondavie.com) has recently renovated the entire bar, and have taken over the old "Sandy's" space next door and created a separate room, which can increase the bar's capacity or can be closed off for private functions. This expansion has also doubled SCORE's patio space, letting patrons enjoy the summer weather on Davie.

SCORE is focused on sports, great food and friendly, personal service. The grand opening will be a huge event, with a VIPs preview featuring great entertainment, food, drink and giveaways. The public is invited at 7 pm for a big celebration with special guests and prizes.

WHAT: SCORE on Davie grand opening party

• Free sports-themed tattoos
• Sampling of new food menu and beverages
• Live DJ
• Prizes and giveaways

WHO: VIPs and community, Felions and Corona Girls, and anyone who's anyone in Davie Village

WHERE: SCORE on Davie

1262 Davie Street, Vancouver

WHEN: Wednesday, August 13, 2008

VIP reception 6-7 pm

General Public 7-9pm