Earlier this month, I wrote about the sad fate of Brookside Close, the real life street that was always a film set - until Brookside folded in 2003.
The Daily Mail online seems to love this story as much as I do, with this follow-up story.
Any millionaires out there wanna buy me a soap house? I'd be ever so grateful. Pretty please?
Remember that Only-In-America story back in February, which reported the arrest of Keyontyli and Taleon Goffney - better known, perhaps, as Keyon and Teyon - for Mission: Impossible robberies?
Speaking of photos, boy culture unearthed this little photospread back in February. If twin-on-twin action dismays you, then look away. And to think I went a whole year without it...
More coverage and comments on this story at the excellent SGL Café blog.
"In the city nothing changes: It becomes cold part of the year, and hot another, but no trees lose their leaves, no crops ripen, there are only the streets, the fire escapes, the sky; the telephone, the echoing gymnasium, the angelic face of the Italian boy selling Christmas trees whom you see walking home from the Baths one cold winter night, glowing in the flames he has started in an old oil can to keep warm as he stands there on Second Avenue. Each winter you dance, and each summer you go to the beach. Each year you love someone new: Orientals in 1967, Italians in 1968, blacks in 1969, and bearded blonds in 1970; and always the Puerto Ricans, the angels, who take the form of messenger boys, waiting to cross the street across the pavement from you in their jeans and sneakers, their old leather jackets, on a cold winter day. You remember the eyes, as beautiful as bare trees against a sky; naked, cold, as they glance at you for a moment and then look away. Years pass loving such eyes. And the only way you know you're older is that you (once loved by older men) now find yourself loving boys younger than you..."
from Dancer From The Dance, by Andrew Holleran
THERE'S SOMETHING I just love about this advert. I think it's the strings. The whole thing makes me feel all wholesome and pure. And I love grocery shopping. Boy, do I love it. Sniffing out the loss-leaders, the BOGOFs, reading labels for nutrional information, squeezing vegetables. And occasionally finding something strange and new. I like to seek out my favourite checkout lady (I have a phobia of male checkout attendants - it just doesn't seem right buying ones groceries from another man). One Asian lady even age-checked me when I was buying a bottle of Malibu a few weeks ago, bless her (the second time that's happened in Morrisons. Maybe it's some ploy to curry favour - unless you're 17, who hates getting age-checked?)
Supermarkets are heaven, but grocery shopping is a skill. I know people who succumb to the marketing, the mind control, and oppressive, depressive strain that is herds of Other People. These poor souls go into supermarkets and buy the things they want, things they want right now, and they pay the price the supermarket wants right now. And that just ain't how it's done. I wish I could impart my knowledge, my skills, but it's instinct, kids - and you either got it, or you don't. Happy shopping.
"While I was still on the toilet, I flushed it, and I felt something pull. I stood up slightly, and I could see a foot in the bowl of the toilet... I could see the baby's foot, so I pulled the baby out. I sat by the toilet. I put him on my lap. He wasn't crying. I was trying to feel for a pulse and there was nothing."
Those are the words of a woman in a Cardiff court, who concealed her pregnancy from her husband and the baby's father, and eventually gave birth, apparently unawares, in the bathroom.
Now ain't that real, real grim?
This Sunday, the BBC launches Survivors, a re-imagining of the apocalyptic 1970s drama of the same name:
Simon Webbe, soaped up and showering in the jungle. What more do I need to say?
Simon Webbe is a contestant on the current series of ITV's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! If you think you can handle, it, there's videos of the boy from Blue here.
Not being an Americanite, I haven't encountered Ms. Wanda Sykes before. But boy, does she sounds good:
"I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation, I felt like I was living my life, I wasn’t in the closet, but I was just living my life. Everybody who knows me personally, they know I’m gay. And that’s the way people should be able to live our lives, really. We shouldn’t have to be standing out here demanding something we automatically should have as citizens of this country. They pissed off the wrong group of people. They have galvanized a community. We are so together now and we all want the same thing and we shouldn’t have to settle for less. Instead of having gay marriage in California, no, we’re gonna have gay marriage across the country."
Goddam, lead and I will follow, Ms. Sykes.
You're looking at a picture of a parcel I received today from amazon.com. It's the soundtrack to Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom, buried somewhere inside a box the size of two DVD players and smothered by a ton weight of plastic air pocket thingumys.
This goes beyond overkill. Maybe it's a joke. In any case, it's nice to see America is still doing it's bit for climate change.
Whilst we wait for the news that the success of Noah's Arc: Jumping The Broom has prompted Logo to come to its senses and green-light a third season (or better still, encourages Showtime or HBO to pick it up and do it justice), look to Friends & Lovers. It's a new series from Maurice Jamal, who was responsible for Dirty Laundry and The Ski Trip:
"Part comedy, part soap opera, part feature film, Friends & Lovers follows several diverse LA couples as they live large, live loose and make big mistakes."
About as diverse as Queer As Folk was diverse, if the poster is anything to go by, but let's not split hair extensions. Any new gay TV is good news. And it's got Benjamin Patterson (crazy Guy from Noah's Arc) in it, which is enough to make me pre-order the DVD. Hell, he can move in, pretend to be my straight jock pal, and scheme to bump off my boyfriend any day of the week!
Visit Friends & Lovers here. And just because, here's a lot more of Mister Patterson than you might have seen before... 
"When white evangelical Christians (or Mormons for that matter) attack GLBT people, the response is loud and harsh: bigots! homophobes! haters! But when black religious leaders attack gays, which is a regular occurrence in many churches, the response is muted because, well, it’s a cultural thing and we white people just wouldn’t understand. Bigotry is bigotry, whether emanating from the pulpits of white churches or black ones."
So writes someone smart, called Kevin Naff, in response to an article by someone stupid, Jasmyne Cannick. Oh, what the hell, she's a vile, racist c***. Yay! Got that out of my system.
Oh, Miss Cannick (above), what if I was black and you were white? What would that make you, and your views?
Read Kevin Naff's excellent article here. Cannick's racist diatribe is here. 
us debate between black and queer communities concerning what constitutes a legitimate civil rights issue and which group owns the right to use the term is both fueled and ignored by systemic efforts by our government that deliberately pits both groups against each other rather than upholding the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution that affords each of these marginal groups their inalienable rights. While it is true that the white LGBTQ community needs to work on its racism, white privilege, and single-issue platform that thwart all efforts for coalition building with both straight and queer communities of color, the African-American community needs to work on its homophobia."
Noah's Arc actors Darryl Stephens and Wilson Cruz attend one of the protests against Proposition 8 in Los Angeles on the weekend. The pair have announced that they're starting a new organisation to support gay youth, From Street to Strategy: Freedom Action Inclusion Rights.
Exactly one week ago I wrote of my disappointment at Barack Obama's comments on gay marriage. I was angry and it showed. But don't doubt that I think he's the best man for the job right now.
A boy aged 19 has today been stabbed to death in Ilford, east London. The unidentified youth is the 28th teenage boy to be murdered in London this year.
Pictured: Aww! Black and white united against the fags. It warms the heart!
Louis Smith, the 19 year old Londoner who earned a bronze in Beijing this year (the Olympics - remember them?), demonstrates the results of hours spent writhing around on a pommel horse in these new amateur snaps. 
Read Louis's story here. Plenty more nutritionally balanced pictures of the yummytastic boy babe here.
EARLIER THIS YEAR, a big screen adaptation of Sex & The City was released. Actually, that's not true, a ninety minute advert for Products was released, with the characters from Sex & The City grafted on to make people watch.
"Is that your bible I can feel, or are you just pleased to see me?"
If that was all a bit too sentimental for you, have a look at the spoof version, and laugh like a lunatic.
Here's a sight guaranteed to break the heart of any soap fan: Brookside Close overgrown and gone to wrack and ruin. Unlike the (albeit real-looking) exteriors for EastEnders and Coronation Street, Brookside was filmed on a real cul-de-sac, in brand new houses bought for the show. When the show ended in 2003 - after more than 21 years on air - the houses were put up for sale. None have ever been sold. An auctioneers now plans to sell off the entire Close for around £2 million, according to The Sun. So are you in the market for a new house - or a new street? Brookside Close is here (aerial shot). Below is the show's 'unique' theme music. Enjoy.
Could this man be the new Doctor?
