Shortbus

The other day I saw a teaser for Shortbus in the cinema.



Actually it was the song Boy of Melody by The Hidden Cameras that caught my attention. I knew the song, but never heard of the film. Hence, I've searched a bit on the net.

John Cameron Mitchell’s SHORTBUS explores the lives of several emotionally challenged characters as they navigate the comic and tragic intersections between love and sex in and around a modern-day underground salon. A sex therapist who has never had an orgasm, a dominatrix who is unable to connect, a gay couple who are deciding whether to open up their relationship, and the people who weave in and out of their lives, all converge on a weekly gathering called Shortbus: a mad nexus of art, music, politics and polysexual carnality. Set in a post-9/11, Bush-exhausted New York City, SHORTBUS tells its story with sexual frankness, suggesting new ways to reconcile questions of the mind, pleasures of the flesh and imperatives of the heart.

In the USA, the movie was released on October 4. Here in Switzerland, we'll have to wait another three weeks. Has anyone seen it yet? Can you recommend it?

Laughing yoga

Look at what I've found at Empire Hotel

Well on my second time to Empire hotel through out my Studies here in Miri, this is the only time I saw so many half naked, cute twink around the swimming pool :P

Haha and what do i do next? Paparazii...taking shots with full zoom via digicam. What a bad guy am I eh :P

New Jersey Supreme Court Rules Same-Sex Couples Must have Access to the Rights and Benefits of Marriage

This recent decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court is not full gay marriage, but it is a step in the right direction. The ruling said that same-sex couples must be granted rights "equivalent" to those of married couples. And it could possibly lead to that state's Legislature trying to pass a gay marriage law. If Eliot Spitzer is elected governor of New York and upholds his promise to introduce legislation in New York to allow gay marriage, we possibly could have three states in the Northeast with allow gay marriage (including Massachusetts).

Here is an excerpt from Gay.com's article on the story:

New Jersey's Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision issued Wednesday, has failed to find that the state's same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

But the justices found New Jersey's 2-year-old domestic-partnership system inadequate, and gave the Legislature 180 days to "enact an appropriate statutory structure" giving same-sex couples rights equivalent to those of married couples.

Now, lawmakers must determine whether the state will honor same-sex marriage or some other form of civil union.

On Wednesday, New Jersey's Assembly speaker pro tem, Wilfredo Caraballo, and colleagues Brian Stack and Reed Gusciora said they would introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

Chief Justice Deborah T. Poritz, in her dissent, said nothing short of full marriage "and all that the status of marriage entails" will suffice.

Public Service Announcement - Michael's

Well Jon started this, and I figured why not try and go with the cool idea of body part pictures which AREN'T nasty. After all...it could lead to some interesting photography.



This is the things that gets me in the most trouble. That's right, my mouth. My brain doesn't always engage properly with these two lips when talking. Not only that, but it these two lips have an incredibly hard time telling people how they feel. It used to be easier...

When I first realized I was gay, or had leanings towards other guys, I was probably in 7th grade. I tried asking a girl out, and got turned down, but every other guy was starting to "date"...and I didn't want to be left out of that. In the locker room, I don't remember looking at other boys all that much. But I knew then that I liked looking at them.

Flash forward to 9th grade and as a freshman in high school I those two lips barely seemed to ever open to speak. I was shy, concerned about my appearance, and scared. They only really opened in Chior and in theater. But I knew by then I liked guys.

Flash forward to my freshman year in college. Those two lips had started speaking finally, but not all the words that they should have. I had come out to a few of my friends by then, and they seemed to take it well. I don't think I had lost anyone's friendship over it. Still, they wouldn't open up to tell people how I felt about them if I thought they were attractive. It was too frightening, too new, and there had already been some hints at rejection. Finally though, my close friends new I was gay, my mother didn't, my brothers didn't but someone finally knew and my two lips were able to talk to them about things.

Flash forward to my moving to California. To this day, my lips stay closed to some degree when I find someone attractive. There is still fear of rejection (which happened more often then not when I did open them to speak), and a fumbling sense that they won't work with my brain if I do try and speak what's really in my heart/mind. They've kissed a few people over the years, opened enough to sometimes get my heart hurt, spoken loudly about who I am.

Still, they tend to stay silently shut, perferring to keep things in my own mind until I can puzzle it out for myself competely. Sometimes they do open enough to say those three little words, but only with people I honestly mean it. I found that they can get my in a lot of trouble as well. And one of these days, I hope that they can open wide enough to not care and simply state to people that I find them attractive. Until then, they'll mutter and mumble, kiss and not tell, sing with all emotion, and whisper the things I want to say out loud.

BUTT Matters

BUTT, the mundane, sexy, mouthy, intellectual, arty, élitist, filthy, funny Dutch homosexual publishing can celebrate its fifth birthday this month. For all those bored by the neutering effects of metrosexuality, manufactured pop-stars, predictable super-clubs and the dictate of gym culture, BUTT brought back the fun into being homosexual and slotted perfectly into the emerging of an adventurous, non-jagged queerdom. Or as filmmaker Bruce LaBruce puts it "BUTT has single-handedly pioneered the notion of a smart, literate gay magazine yet also manages to be very dirty".

If you've missed it so far, there is a possibility to catch up. The makers of BUTT celebrating BUTT’s fifth anniversary, by publishing a book with a selection of the most fantastic and the most ridiculous interviews and photos that have appeared in BUTT so far.

Read how the sex was put back into homosexuality.

A Joke

2 Reasons Why I Should go to School


Early one morning, a mother went in to wake up her son.

"Wake up, son. It's time to go to school!"

"But why, Mom? I don't want to go."

"Give me two reasons why you don't want to go."

"Well, the kids hate me for one, and the teachers hate me also!"

"Oh, that's no reason not to go to school. Come on now and get ready."

"Give me two reasons why I should go to school."

"Well, for one, you're 52 years old. And for another, you're the PRINCIPAL!"

Poor Paula

From the "sad and pathetic file" comes this story. There was an auction on eBay to spend an entire day with Paula Abdul and NOBODY bid on it. Ouch. The prize package included two first class tickets to Los Angeles, a $2,225 shopping spree and a backstage meeting with the American Idol judge. The proceeds were intended to go to multiple sclerosis charities, but the minimum asking price of $26,000 was just too much. Fox pulled the auction off eBay after four days.Why wouldn't anyone bid on that package? Besides the price, maybe it's because Paula seems A) Drunk, B) Weird, and/or C) High Maintenance. Or, maybe it's because of the false advertising. The auction said the winner would spend a day with Paula, but really it's only a backstage meeting. Sounds like something a teen-ager would like. A teen-ager without $26,000.

Story from TV Squad

Nice story from forwarded mail.

One day, when I was a freshman in high school,

I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school.

His name was Kyle.

It looked like he was carrying all of his
books.

I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday?

He must really be a nerd."

I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friends tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on.

As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him.

They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt.

His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him.

He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes.

My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye.

As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks.

They really should get lives.

" He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!"

There was a big smile on his face.

It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude.

I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.

As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before.

He said he had gone to private school before now.

I would have never hung out with a private school kid before.

We talked all the way home, and I carried some of his books.

He turned out to be a pretty cool kid.

I asked him if he wanted to play a little football with my friends.

He said yes.

We hung out all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him, and my friends thought the same of him.

Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again.

I stopped him and said, "Boy, you are gonna really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!

" He just laughed and handed me half the books.

Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends.

When we were seniors, we began to think
about college.

Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I
was going to Duke.

I knew that we would always be friends, that the miles would never be a problem.

He was going to be a doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship.

Kyle was valedictorian of our class.

I teased him all the time about being a nerd.

He had to prepare a speech for graduation.

I was so glad it wasn't me having to get up there and speak.

Graduation day, I saw Kyle.

He looked great.

He was one of those guys that really found himself during high school.

He filled out and actually looked good in glasses.

He had more dates than I had and all the girls loved him.

Boy, sometimes I was jealous.

Today was one of those days.

I could see that he was nervous about his speech.

So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!"

He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled.

"Thanks," he said.

As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began.

"Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years.

Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach...but mostly your friends...

I am here to tell all of you that being a
friend to someone is the best gift you can give them.

I am going to tell you a story."

I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met.

He had planned to kill himself over the weekend.

He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home.

He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile.

"Thankfully, I was saved.

My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable."

I heard the gasp go through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment.

I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile.

Not until that moment did I realize it's depth.

Never underestimate the power of your actions.

With one small gesture you can change a person's life.

For better or for worse.

God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Look for God in others.

Mooncake Festival in Malaysia

Last week is mooncake festival, and on this date usually we, Chinese, will eat mooncake and play 'tangloon'. Wonder what is 'tangloon' check out the pictures below.






















Well this is mooncake, yummy, I've got 7 this year :P Still in the process of finishing it...
















The number of people in that park we're going, look at how colorful it is :)















Well, it's always okie to be kids once awhile, so I bought a 'tangloon' haha. Well it's kinda fun to be out with all my frens to play it :P

Spitzer Vows to Push for Gay Marriage in New York

This could be very good news on the push for gay marriage in this country. If Eliot Spitzer is elected governor, which seems likely as he has a large lead in the polls, and is able to convince the New York State Assembly and Senate to pass a gay marriage bill, it could open up the possibility that other states might follow suit. Currently Vermont has civil unions and Massasschusetts allows gay marriage (due to a court decision), but a large state like New York might be a catalyst for other states, such as California, to take up similiar legislation.

Of course it will still be a tough battle even here in New York to pass a gay marriage law, so patience will be required. It won't happen immediately, maybe not even in his first year in office, but having support from a Governor of a large, influential state can only help in legalizing gay marriage in other states. If the voters of California decide they've had enough of Arnold Scharzenegger and replace him with someone less worried about his standing with the religious right, perhaps a law will also be passed there. Many times in the past, laws begun in New York or California have spread their way across the country.

There will be areas of the nation where it will take much longer to enact equal marriage laws, such as the Bible Belt states, but let's hope Eliot Spitzer stays true to his promise and manages to accomplish this goal.

As the saying goes, every journey begins with with a single step.

The excerpts below are from a article:

For the full story, go here.

By saying on Thursday night that he will push to legalize gay marriage, Attorney General Eliot Spitzer put himself at the vanguard of the effort to recognize such unions, staking out a position that most prominent Democrats, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, have shied away from.
Mr. Spitzer, who is running for governor and holds a commanding lead in the polls, made his strongest declaration yet in support of gay marriage in his remarks to the Empire State Pride Agenda, the state’s leading gay lobbying group. He told the audience, “We will make it law in New York.”

“We will not ask whether this proposition of legalizing same-sex marriage is popular or unpopular; we will not ask if it’s hard or easy; we will simply ask if it’s right or wrong,” he told a crowd of nearly 1,200 gathered at a Midtown hotel ballroom. “I think we know in this room what the answer to that question is.”

Mr. Spitzer’s Republican opponent, John Faso, does not support gay marriage.

BUTT & DIK

I've been an ardent reader of BUTT for quite some years. This Netherlands based yet cosmopolitan magazine mixes nudes with feature-length interviews of gay celebrities, printed in black-and-white on pink paper. It effortlessly straddles the line between art and porn. No wonder Bruce Labruce is among both the interviewed and interviewers. It was also the place where Casey Spooner and Michael Stipe talked about their relationship (in different issues though). I think, in the US it's sold in American Apparel stores.

A bit more difficult to obtain is a similar magazine I came across recently. It's called DIK FAGAZIN and it's surprisingly from Poland, one of the most homophobic countries in Europe. 89% of its population think homosexuality is abnormal. This just to show how daring those folks are by talking queer sex as a tool to change the world and instituting a "home-grown Polish faggot culture". Chapeau!