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June 15, 2009

First To Wave A Paw Flag Dies

This took thirty years. Yes, really. Try as I might, I could not manage a beard for most of my adult life. The bf makes a lot of jokes about the bear community, which I think I may be technically a part of (but would not be seen dead with, especially after that horrid Logo documentary with the transgendered types).

But, yes! I've managed it, finally, after several months of chia-petting the hell out of my face. I wanted to claw it off like body glitter most nights, but after much perserverence . . .

Continue reading "First To Wave A Paw Flag Dies" »

May 13, 2006

A Saturday 'Mo-saic

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Reader Ken sends us this appealing set of imagery of soap hottie Adrian Bellani, giving me yet another reason to quit my job and stay home watching daytime television:

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Enjoy your weekend, everyone.  It was supposed to be rainy and miserable here in NYC.  Instead, it is brilliantly sunny and 65.  Kinda puts a crimp in my indoor cleaning plans.

May 10, 2006

Shock, n. See: "Daughtry, Chris"

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SPECIAL NOTE to "Access Atlanta/AJC.com" readers: Thank you for visiting this site.  A little controvery erupted among some of the readers of the site that brought you here about this being a "gay" blog, so I applaud you for choosing quality video over homophobia.


Chris Daughtry and others on "American Idol" seemed genuinely shocked by the rocker's early ejection from the competition.

Umm, ever heard of the Internet, Chris?

His reaction was a multi-tiered masterpiece, evincing his barely concealed disgust at the unparalleled boobery of the Idol-watching public.

Paula was disconsolate, while Simon watched dollar signs fly right out of the Kodak Theater.

The stills below capture the range of emotion, but what was most priceless was watching Daughtry's face dissolve in a nanosecond from frivolity and smugness to naked rage.

[Watch video – 3:58, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 3:58, WMV format, low bandwidth]

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Reuters' Day of Atonement?

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George Bush sure has been taking a drubbing lately, and no one has drubbed quite as mightily as the "journalists" from Reuterville.  So now that Bush's poll numbers have tanked, does that mean Reuters is going softer on him now?

Take this photo from an event today, showing the "caring" side of the President:

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Perhaps they are making up for this:

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Or other past media sins like this from USA Today:

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Or this from "NBC Nightly News":

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Although I suppose that last one could have just been NBC's secret shout-out to tennis fans.

April 26, 2006

Gratuitousness

Out1 Malbug_13I know we have been a bit skin-deficient around here lately, at least, as far as political blogs go.  Let's face it, we're no Made In Brazil, Oh La La Paris or Fleshbot.  Hell, we'd even make a piss-poor Rod 2.0.

But I just had to share a spread from the May issue of Out magazine.

Look, I don't know who this Yves Saint Laurent person is, and I don't much care.  And I couldn't tell his summer collection from a stamp collection.

All I know is, I'm all for fashion that consists of, well, pretty much no clothing whatsoever.

I'm serious.  Can someone explain this to me?

Continue reading "Gratuitousness" »

April 23, 2006

How High's the Water, Mama?

Water_line Malbug_13I missed my flight yesterday to Andorra (via Barcelona with a three-hour drive), mainly because of the big rain storm yesterday that slowed traffic to a crawl, and the closure of the FDR for construction, which further locked the gridlock.

After finding a non-nonstop through Madrid and arriving five hours late, I thought a nice shower would be a good pick-me-up.

My hotel room's bathroom is pictured at right.  See anything wrong?  That's right, there is no barrier to keep the water in.  The hotel was so booked that I got the last room, which was specially made for disabled people.  By "specially," I mean "sadistic in a way that would make Dr. Mengele proud."

As I showered, the water began creeping farther and farther toward the bathroom door.  I was so afraid that it was going to spill out onto the hardwood floor and flood the people below me that my shower consisted roughly half of getting clean, and the other half of running back and forth to the "high-water line" (marked in red) and dragging the water with my foot, squeegee-like, back toward the drain.

All I could think of was some poor schmuck trying to do the same thing in a wheelchair.  Surely the Europeans are smart enough to have figured out how to be both handicapped-accessible while also not requiring, you know, flood insurance.

Back home tomorrow night.  I'm physically and emotionally spent for many reasons, some of which I'll go into soon enough, so I'll do the lame blogger cop-out and apologize for the "light posting."

April 19, 2006

Idol: The Final Three Become Clear - UPDATE

Malbug_13I was unable to complete my video capture of last night's "American Idol," owing to technical and time constraints.  Unless faithful Robbie pulls my bacon out of the fire today, I might give it another go this evening.

But for now, I do have this:

Ace hair

It says so much.

I mean, really, now.  Just when I think Ace Young has reached a cheesy new nadir, he somehow manages to plumb heretofore uncharted, cheddary depths.  He chose "standards" night to come out looking like Gordon Gecko, a strangely macho choice when contrasted with his puny falsetto.  Sorry, Randy, it might be Ace's bread and butter, but that's only because he can't sing in a normal register.  He should be gone tonight, but won't be, for at least two reasons.

The first is Kellie PicklerWooo-WEE, did she stink up the joint last night!  She could have had another hour looking around the studio, and she still wouldn't have found the pitch.  But maybe that's because she was too busy searching for the accompaniment, which she was about two beats ahead of near the end of her song.  I'm trying to remember the last time a finalist blew a performance so badly this late in the game.  For this back-stretch swoon alone, she should be sent walking.  But I doubt she will be.

That's all because of Elliott Yamin.  Poor Elliott.  Poor, powerful-voiced yet tragically vanilla Elliott.  His performance was better than most (i.e., Kellie, Ace, Paris, and possibly Taylor), but it was subpar for him.  With that mug and his charisma deficit, he will probably get the boot tonight.  It will be unfair, of course, but I think that Kellie's stunning outfit and Idol "look" will be enough to get her ditzy ass through to next week.

Is Kellie's country bumpkin routine really a ruse, though, as even Ryan suspects? She seemed genuinely perplexed whether "words" and "lyrics" were synonyms.  UPDATE: I was just reminded of when Kellie told Rod Stewart that he had "taken a load off [her] chest," followed by Stewart's dumb-founded expression, and Kellie's complete lack of comphrension at the double-entendre she had just stumbled into.

Ironically, even though I generally enjoyed the performances last night as a group more than any out of the final 12, it has revealed this season's Achilles' heel.  The fact that the contestants were able to excel in a genre that dates back some 60 years shows just how weak they have been at the kind of modern music that will ultimately be demanded of the winner.

My final three: The only two I believe genuinely deserve to win are Chris Daughtry (who looked extremely hot in a bad-boy way that was somewhat blunted by a goofy ascot) and Katharine McPhee (who gave me goosebumps).  I would prefer the former but would be happy with the latter.  However, I think voters will place Taylor Hicks ahead of at least Daughtry, if not McPhee as well.  That Simon Cowell is finally saying nice things about Taylor suggests that the haughty Brit knows which way the wind is blowing.

UPDATE: Robbie very kindly cut and uploaded some video highlights.  So I guess now I can call this post "A Malcontent Joint."

[Watch video – 9:00, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 9:00, WMV format, low bandwidth]

April 18, 2006

Scenes from a Duane Reade - UPDATED

Malbug_13Who knew that they now sell the Tom Cruise Hungry Man Dinner in the hair products aisle?:

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BREAKING NEWS: Tomkitten emerges silently from womb; cult followers give baby girl a Jewish name.

Inquiring minds still want to know what Tom had for dinner ...

April 17, 2006

More of a Pink Thumb, Really

Landscaping? Can do. Bricks, mortar, rocks, dirt, fountains, fish. I'll craft a carefully terraced lawn civilization that would have the Incans weeping with jealousy.

Gardening? I kill everything. So right now, I'm very pumped that every tulip I planted last autumn is now blooming. Every single one. My next step: elaborate squirrel traps.

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April 11, 2006

The Jokes Practically Write Themselves

Malbug_13Tom Cruise?  In a cockpit?  No, too easy – I think I'll pass.

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[h/t multiple]

April 05, 2006

Beach Boys

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Click to make fig leaves disappear (obviously NSFW)

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Before there was Herb Ritts, there was Mel Roberts.

Roberts was a prolific photographer of the male form.  In the 1960s and 1970s, he focused on many of the beach bums and surfers who were discovering the sexual revolution on and off the sands of Southern California.  He was profiled on a recent episode of "Sexplorations" on the "Here! TV" network.

Many of the models were friends and lovers of Roberts, a World War II veteran and gay activist who founded California's chapter of the pioneering Mattachine Society.

In the late 1970s, the L.A. Police Department raided his home twice and confiscated prints and equipment, which were eventually returned.  (Frontal male nudity was generally considered obscene at the time.)  In 1981, he hung up his camera for good, but he helped pave the way for other notable photographers who celebrated male beauty.

His photographs have been collected in books including "California Boys" and "The Wild Ones."

The video of the segment follows, and some very much NSFW photos are after the jump.

[Watch video – 5:37, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 5:37, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Continue reading "Beach Boys" »

March 30, 2006

Hot Times

Malbug_13It's never too early for summer at A&F.  The retailer's new summer collection is out, with the requisite half-naked men to go with it.

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March 22, 2006

Bazaar, Indeed

Malbug_13Is Madonna still promoting "Confessions on a Dancefloor," or just in some strange limbo between it and whatever her next big project is?  Well, the flyaway bangs are gone ...

March 21, 2006

Michelangel-oh!

Gaytimes1 Malbug_13The famous Florentine Michelangelo, for whom the term "Renaissance Man" practically could have been invented, was infatuated with painting and sculpting the male form.  But as we now know, he loved to do other things to them too.

He liked to write poems about them.  (What did you think I meant?)

On Thursday, a new exhibit of Michelangelo's drawings taken from virtually his entire career opens at the British Museum in London.

So the timing was right for the UK's superb Gay Times magazine to run a spread of photos inspired by some of those 500-year-old images, courtesy of male model "Petr."

He seems a little "softer" than what we're used to in American magazines.  But to me, that only adds to the sexiness.  Or maybe I was just in shock from seeing Gay Times in Germany surrounded by several other mainstream publications with naked ladies on the cover.

What follows after the jump is NSFW, unless your boss likes it when you look at man-ass ...

Continue reading "Michelangel-oh!" »

March 19, 2006

Samstag in Köln

Malbug_13Ah, Cologne.  I am sad to leave you behind, yet also very happy to get back to my own (occupied) bed.

I am air-blogging again from the plane, somewhere over the North Atlantic.  This has been a great trip, mainly because I have been able to take a little more time to be a tourist than usual, instead of working 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day.  Still, it wasn't enough.

I had heard that the people of Cologne were friendly, but that was apparently an understatement.

Cologne is fast becoming one of the major gay hubs of Europe, and it is threatening to dethrone Berlin as the gay capital of Germany.  There are two main gay neighborhoods, one of which, Rudolfplatz, my hotel is smack-dab in the middle of.  Conveniently, it is the younger and more twinkish of the two areas.  The other one (east of here, near the main bridge across the Rhine) is older, hairier and abounding with leather.  (Sorry, bears, them's just my tastes.)

On Friday night I went to a bar called "Ex-Corner."  (Thanks to the reader who suggested it.)  People there were exceptionally friendly, initiating several conversations.  I did my best to speak almost entirely in German to them, which most of the natives agreed wasn't bad for not having spoken it in about 15 years.

The bar was playing an interesting variety of music.  There was popular American stuff like "Hung Up," the ubiquitous Abba, and some older but fun American songs.  (Who knew so many Germans knew all the words to the theme song from "The Fall Guy"?!)  There was also a lot of German pop music that I had never heard.

Everybody sang along to almost every song, even the ones in English, and then when they would play these cheesy German ballads, it almost became like the stereotypical German beerhall (but without the putsch).  Everyone would grasp arms, raise their Kölsch's high in the air, and sway to the music.  It was a very cool tourist moment for me, and it felt great to feel accepted and part of the crowd.

We've all heard so much about how Europeans supposedly don't like Americans very much these days.  Maybe I was expecting them to quiz me about Iraq and whether I support the president, or whatever, but there was thankfully none of that.  Anti-Americanism might hold sway in some places across the continent, but not last night in Ex-Corner.  There were just friendly, fun people.

But how they drink all that beer and stay thin, I'll never know!

By the way, I really must find a way to take photos without making a spectacle of myself, because I need some visual proof that the men of Cologne, as a group, are among the hottest guys I have come across in any city anywhere.  But take my word for it, and considering penciling in some travel plans of your own.

A few tourist snaps follow after the jump.

Continue reading "Samstag in Köln" »

March 03, 2006

Kenya Take Me Home Now?

Malbug_13I'm now back in New York, via Bujumbura, Nairobi and London.

My luggage, however, is not, and British Airways seems unable to tell me if it is in one of those locations or in the air between any given two of them.  Oh, well, at least I enjoyed the clotted cream in-flight.  The very idea of it had always sounded disgusting to me, but it was sheer bliss.

Three cheers to Robbie for doing a fine job of flying solo!

I don't think I have the mental capacity to share a lot of stories (not that there are any) or photos (there are several of those), but for right now I'm going to leave you with only one, and it's a bit of a downer.

I had the opportunity to make a quick trip to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali, Rwanda, and I learned much more about that terrible event in that short time than I had known before.  (In all seriousness, it's hard to overstate how deeply affected I was, and how I feel even guiltier now as an American regarding our own inaction and that of the world community.  Oh, and it gave me fresh, new reasons to detest the French for their central role in enabling the genocide to occur in the first place.  All things that I had not known before.)

The picture below shows just a few of the actual victims among the roughly 1 million who died between April and July 1994 in Rwanda.

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February 17, 2006

13th on the Podium, First in Our Groins

EmanuelMalbug_13(UPDATE: Sorry the pictures disappeared for a while.  They are back now, after the jump.)  Robbie is helping prove today why more eyes and ears are better than less when it comes to MalcoVision, as he pointed me toward this little gem:

Canadian (by way of Italy) skater Emanuel Sandhu won't long be remembered for finishing 13th in men's figure skating at the 2006 Winter Olympics.  But thanks to the high-definition cameras of NBC, he wins immortality in our hearts – and in other places on our body.

The purple-clad cutie had a mishap-strewn performance that seemed to have him more on his ass than on his blades.

But as he left the ice, NBC cut away to a super slo-mo shot of Sandhu than answers the age-old question: "What do figure skaters wear under their spandex?"  It might also answer the question of what Sandhu's religion is.  Ba-DUM-bum!

Yes, Sandhu's Lycra-gripped man-parts flopped all to and fro as he fell down, and were broadcast to a potential 3.7 billion viewers worldwide – and to a lucky few of us, in all their 1080i glory.

As Robbie said, Johnny Weir didn't actually skate all that badly yesterday.  He was just distracted.

Stills images follow after the jump, but first there are a couple of videos.  The first is what I would term "the good part," and the rest is his entire performance for the ice queens who would scream if I neglected to include it.

[Watch video "Good Parts" – 1:19, WMV format, very high bandwidth]  (Why bother with low-bandwidth??)

[Watch video – 6:25, WMV format, high bandwidth]

[Watch video – 6:25, WMV format, low bandwidth]

Continue reading "13th on the Podium, First in Our Groins" »

February 13, 2006

I Recall, Central Park in Winter

Malbug_13Sunday was a good day for frolicking in New York.  A fresh blanket of deep, crisp snow covered the area, even deeper than the 16 inches promised (and these weren't "Gay.com inches"), and ending almost precisely when forecasters said it would (4 p.m.)  In fact, it was a record snowfall.

So we sallied forth to Central Park, an idea that just about every other Manhattanite seemed to share.

A few photos follow after the jump ...

Continue reading "I Recall, Central Park in Winter" »

January 27, 2006

Frankly François

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It's always nice to drift into a weekend with a little eye candy, and there are plenty of pieces scattered about Steph & Alek's interview with candyman photographer François Rousseau.

Rousseau says he finds many of his subjects in everyday settings, so pump up, guys: He could be coming to a gym near you!

Some of his more provocative pieces mix the erotic and the ecclesiastical.  Hmm, kind of sounds like The Malcontent!

Check it out ...

January 26, 2006

Andraé 3000 Faces

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If there's one thing on "Project Runway" more reliable than the crying jags, it is the fact that the producers love, love, love to cut away to Andraé Gonzalo's reaction shots.  Andraé is constantly mugging for the camera, reacting with astonishment even to banal announcements such as "I bought you some Splenda" as if he had just hit the Powerball.

His designs have been pretty strong, especially last night's "dirty-gutter dress," which I thought should have won.  But if Andraé's fashion aspirations are dashed, he could be the next Buster Keaton.  He pulled the following faces on last night's episode alone:

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And my personal favorite, this shot taken after Zulema announced a "walk-off" to select her new model:

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Andraé wasn't reacting to the walk-off.  He was actually unhinging his jaw in preparation for feeding time:

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