THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE

*Let's start this week's round-up off on a light note, with this tale of an old man and his interchangeable boy props.

*Should I face the death penalty for writing this blog? The Iranians would like me to.

*The bearded madmen are at it again. All homosexuals should be stoned to death, says Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary. "If a man likes another man, it can happen," he said, perhaps speaking from experience. "But if you go on to fulfil your desire..." Blah blah threat blah threat.

*And when stoning us isn't on the agenda, they're ordering their women to commit suicide. Ain't these extremists a hoot!

*"How much is that footballer in the window? (arf! arf!)
The one with the waggley tail
How much is that footballer in the window? (arf! arf!)
I do hope that footballer's for sale"

*The 100 Greatest, Gayest Albums (according to someone else). How many do you agree on? (I only like No.3 in the Top 10).

*Mr. Nalley invites his 7th grade class to his big gay wedding. Kind of.

*More happy news from Africa. This story includes the words "gay" and "Christian".

*And here's a more positive take on the gay/Christian equation.

*Hotel Bans Gay Couple From Sharing A Bed! the headlines scream. Homophobia? Well, not really, if you read the details. This is where gay activists give us all a bad rap.

*Maybe that's why they still think they can cure us.

*A diet high in fruit and vegetables may protect against cancer and heart disease. YES, WE KNOW ALREADY!

*But what you might not know is that drinking hot tea will mess with your food tube. Put milk in your tea and coffee!

*This might be the most chilling picture you'll have seen in a long time.

*Common sense finally raising its head? Women who get so drunk they can't remember agreeing to sex and cry rape might not continue to get away with it.

*Feeling a bit crabby? They are.

*Elephants in Belfast!

*Space storm disaster!

*Fashion police! (No, really).

*Expert analysis of the financial crisis from Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva: "White people with blue eyes" did it, apparently. Er, okay...

*Or was he just getting his two pennies worth in after Silvio Berlusconi's cringe-inducing faux pas?

*Is a film of John Christopher's Tripods novels finally on the way? Alex Proyas (I, Robot) is the man for the job.

*Come back Chris Brown, everything's forgiven - that dumb ass bint deserved the beat down she got. I mean, really. Tattoos of guns? That's a great message to send to your young audience. Knock some sense into her Chris!

*Premium jail bait. Tip, just don't drop the soap in those communal showers.

*They didn't like his dirrty gay sex history, so they kicked him back. Supreme Returns - but shouldn't We be the ones to kick this useless, sullen, gay-for-pay jerk-off to the kerb?

*Dolly Parton: "I will never be over". You go, gurl.

*Jade Goody, 5 June 1981 - 22 March 2009.

ISSUE 02 On the cover: Salieu Jalloh, by Jon Malinowski.

Brotherly Love? How About Some For Our Own

THERE'S AN INTERESTING debate going on over at thegayte-keeper, one of my favourite blogs. TheGayte-Keeper himself, usually a sensitive soul, had the following conversation with a young 'un:

Him: I have not every been f&ck before, but I have sucked my bro lol TG-K: yr bro? Him: Yeah he is a year older but we did it when we were 17 and 18 TG-K: but he is yr brother? Him: yeah, we were just wrestling, and he started it so what it felt good. TG-K: ok TG-K: so is yr brother gay? Him: No he is married now. Im the one who is TG-K: uh-huh TG-K: I am sure he is TG-K: so u guys never talked ahimut wot took place? Him: I’ve never discussed it with another soul TG-K: o TG-K: k Him: u think it was wrong to experiment with my bro? TG-K: DUH! TG-K: he is yr flesh and blood TG-K: if it wasn't wrong u would have told others about it Him: I disagree cuz all we did was experiment. just played. and no seed was taking inside of either of us. besides who u closer too than a brother. TG-K: so why haven't u told anyone about it? TG-K: if u feel it isn't wrong Him: cus I’m not sure being gay isn’t wrong. TG-K: but u were adults (almost) TG-K: that has nothing 2 do with being gay right now TG-K: this is about you and your bro messing around Him: u saying it is right to be jacked off by a stranger but not every a brother. TG-K: yes I am Him: o k why? I’m interested. TG-K: dude if u don't know then I can't tell u TG-K: sorry Him: so am I doomed because of one mistake. TG-K: I am not saying that TG-K: just that if u can't acknowledge that it was wrong then something is wrong TG-K: right?

There's a few issues at play that I'd like to address. Firstly, the issue of sex, or sexual experimentation, between brothers (or other male family members). As regular readers of ka-os|theory will know, I have a thing for twins. It's an extremely erotic fantasy. But I also know that whilst others share my fetish, many people find it incomprehensible and at worst disturbing and obscene. Whatever your personal feelings on the subject are, it's extremely common. It happens. Trust me, I know. Boys will be boys. The second issue here is one of trust. Here we have a young, gay boy - not man, boy - confessing to a more mature peer a deeply personal, emotionally complex situation. Instead of guiding the young 'un, our correspondent tears a strip off. Now, I like thegayte-keeper a lot, he just made a bad judgement call and let his personal beliefs get in the way of his responsibilities - those responsibilities being to nurture, guide and take care of our own. Young boys are everywhere: those juicy-booty, tight waist, fresh-faced 18-year-olds on BGCLive. Some of them are pure, unashamed sluts, wholly concerned with busting a nut at every and any opportunity. Some of them really are kids, blindly trying to find their way in The Life, not knowing what to say, how to be, what to do. You remember, you were once. Maybe you still are. But all of those young gay boys need our help. They rarely get it from their families, or their existing friends. It's up to Us to be their big brothers, their father figures. You were him, once.

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"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..."
LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

THIS IS 20-YEAR-OLD sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey. 

A true London boy, he's built like a tank and possesses a million watt smile. He's also sweet as hell:

"I must have been about 11 when I was playing football in the park and a dog started chasing me. I started running, screaming my head off, but some of my friends noticed how fast I was. I started running at school and it all started from there." Happily, Harry isn't afraid of dogs anymore. "My friend had a dog, a really friendly dog. I was moving to Loughborough on my own so I thought it would be a good idea [to get a dog]. I've got a dog now called Barney – a Shar Pei. Barney is a bit like me in that he likes to run but he can't run for long!"

EVERYTHING LENSED

Cut Or Uncut? (09 Remix)

ALMOST TWO YEARS ago to the day, the question posed by this blog was Cut Or Uncut?

That's because the World Health Organization and UNAIDS had just announced that circumcision was an effective preventative measure in the reduction of the spread of HIV.

Further evidence has now emerged, with Ugandan boffins and white coats at Johns Hopkins University making some pretty astonishing discoveries. "We already knew that circumcision can decrease men's HIV risk by 60%," said Dr. Matthew R. Golden, one of the reports authors. "Now we know that male circumcision reduces men's risk of herpes by 25% and of human papillomavirus by a third." Which says to me, foreskin is bad. It's just not hygenic. God gave us underwears so we wouldn't need an extra envelope of skin. Take it off, I say. President Obama's tenure will be miserable failure unless he makes circumcision mandatory. So, what do you prefer? Cut or uncut?

PREVIOUSLY - Cut Or Uncut?

ELSEWHERE - More compelling evidence on why circumcision should be routine

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"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..."

LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF François Rousseau.

If you're in Paris, you can visit the artist's current show, Atelier, on at La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (try and say that with a gobstopper in your mouth).

It's open until April 5.

EVERYTHING LENSED

...out of time

This article has been moved. You can find it here.

ka-os|theory

Shut Up And Stick To Making Music

IF THERE'S ONE thing I can't stand, it's celebrities making populist political statements.

I get the theory behind it. Stupid people who spend their days reading Heat magazine and mourning the death of Jade Goody (having previously called her every dehumanising name under the sun) will pay attention to Beyonce lecturing us about poverty and buy a little coloured band to wear on their wrist to show they've done their bit.

There's few "celebrities" who I can take seriously when it comes to The Issues. Annie Lennox on AIDS: yes. The Pet Shop Boys on most things: yes. Except...

Talking to thelondonpaper, Pet Shop Boy Chris Lowe said, "CCTV cameras have turned Britain into a gulag. You get off a train at a railway station and it's like a prison camp. There's not one little camera - they're all over the place."

Er, and what?

Fellow Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant added, "People would have found it slightly sinister at one time. But a generation has grown up thinking: 'Whatever'."

Yeah, whatever. CCTV can be abused, but the benefits far outweigh any negatives. It's thanks to CCTV that the Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Osman Hussain were convicted for their failed attempt to bomb three London Underground trains and a bus on 21st July 2005 - just two weeks after the 7th July atrocities.

Condemning CCTV will go down well with Stupid People, who will nod vigorously and whine about their civil liberties. But the threat doesn't come from a Big Brother state, it comes from Islamic extremists. Chris Lowe is living in another world if can't see that.

And that's the point - he is. Back in the real world, I'm glad cameras are watching every move I make, and every move They make, too.

ELSEWHERE - Terrorist ringleader Muktar Said Ibrahim: A robber and a sex offender

DISCOGRAPHIC

DISCOGRAPHIC: VIDEO CLASSICS YOU NEED TO KNOW, EVERY TUESDAY...

SETTLE DOWN NOW boys and girls.

Pay attention to the nice boy, because he has a jolly nice story to tell you. His name is Dylan, but his friends call him Dizzee. He's a rascal! He lives on a big council estate in Bow with his mummy.

Dylan doesn't have a daddy. Dylan was a bad boy in school and he had to leave. He was a little bit naughty and stole some cars. But Dylan went to music classes and a kind teacher helped him to learn how to make music that everyone likes. Dylan made a very good record called Boy In Da Corner (watch your spelling now, children!) which lots of people bought. Dylan is such a nice boy he even said thank you to all the mummies and daddies who bought the record. In fact, if you listen closely, you can hear him say thank you on this jolly good film clip of his song, Dream. So make yourselves comfortable and listen sharp as Dylan tells you all about his life...

DISCOGRAPHIC: VIEW ALL

Who Let The Thugs Out?

DID MICHAEL LUCAS have any idea about the can of worms he was opening when he made his now infamous comments about black models in porn?

Over at Paper Clips N' Potato Chips, the debate is about how white men perceive black male sexuality. The "Black Brute", the "submissive black bottom", and the thug are three stereotypes depicted in American porn, and Clarence wonders what forces have engineered this scenario.

My main concern with Clarence's articles (the general thrust of which I agreed with) is the notion that white men are to blame for the perpetuation, and dominance, of the thug stereotype in porn. On this I completely disagree.

The portrayal of the thug character in porn is almost exclusively limited to black-on-black/blatino/latino films. There just isn't enough porn of the type that would indicate the thug being fetishized by whites to suggest that the thug fantasy is white-driven. If it was, we might expect to see a white boy thrown into the CocoDorm, for example - if Flavaworks could sell more DVDs and memberships by selling a black-on-white gangbang fantasy, they would. But their audience is primarily black, and simply not interested in those sorts of interracial depictions.

Secondly, it seems to me that the majority of white men who are sexually attracted to black men simply aren't attracted to the thug image. The popular "type" is the conventional gay muscle man: men like Diesel Washington, Brian Bodine, Jason Tiya and Eddie Diaz et cetera. Whilst Washington and Diaz could be described as dominant tops, both Bodine and Tiya frequently appear in both passive and active roles. If we look at studios like Randy Blue, racial stereotyping is largely absent; the emphasis is on hyper masculinity, a fantasy where all parties are "one of the guys".

In short, most white men don't like the thug image. It's a black thing (or in other words, Caucasians not welcome).

For further evidence of this, look at the extraordinary racial diatribes provoked by the shutdown of thug paradise Nubian101 by "evil whitey" Titan. It's a situation portrayed both by the site's owners and its fans as black against white.

Clarence says, "Now as for the point that popularity of the thug image is principally attributed to the urban culture. That alone does not explain all of it. While surely there are African-Americans that fantasize about the ideal 'thug', that would account for it being a niche, like bears, twinks, etc."

I'd argue that the thug, or urban culture, is the popular currency of the black gay community, and not a niche at all. It's something that's been adopted as "theirs" and one which excludes whites. If you don't believe me, just log on to BGCLive, where the only niches you'll find are those black men who don't represent themselves as thugs.

You might not like it, but the dominance of the thug in porn isn't down to "evil whitey". In fact, quite the opposite: I'd argue that it's a defence against white men, something that clearly signposts the separatist mentality of us and them.

RELATED STORIES...

PREVIOUSLY - Black Models Won't Appear In Gay Films

PREVIOUSLY - Battle Of The Sex Sites With A Racial Twist

PREVIOUSLY - Labels: Hate It Or Love It, You've Got One

PREVIOUSLY - I Dream In Black And White, I Wanna Make Love In Colour

PREVIOUSLY - Can Discrimination Ever Be Acceptable? I Think So

PREVIOUSLY - Heard the One About The Porn Star And The Zebra Crossing?

PREVIOUSLY - Sometimes Porn Stars Say Bad Things

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"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..."

LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

HE'S ARGENTINIAN. Of course he looks like that.

I remember reading somewhere that Israeli men are the most beautiful in the world (or was it men from the Ivory Coast?) Since my entire knowledge of Israel is based upon barely paying attention to depressing news reports about Gaza blah blah blah Strip blah blah Hamas blah, and the gorgeous gay film Yossi & Jagger, I can't really comment on that, but I'd hazzard a guess that there's probably more conventionally beautiful men in Israel than, say, England, or most states in north America.

There is, however, mounting evidence of impossible male beauty in Argentina. There's Daniel Marvin and Pedro Andreas, for one thing, and the impossible beauties of, er, Boy Cum Party - who I'm reliably informed are Argentinian by my friend Sanya, an expert in all things Hispanic/Latino (in fact he once educated me on the difference between Hispanic and Latino, but I can't remember what he said now. But hell, I bet most of them couldn't differentiate between Irish and Scottish, or West and North African, so it's six of one and half a dozen of the other).

Anyway! This isn't about the price of eggs, it's about Santiago Peralta. He'd best enjoy looking like that while he can, 'cos it ain't gonna last long. Just ask Channing Tatum.

EVERYTHING LENSED

ELSEWHERE - Exclusive Outtakes From DOM's March Portfolio: Santiago

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"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..."

LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

I can always smell them on me, after.
The musty, musky midnight husk
Of shame wraps round me.

Invisible. Impenetrable.

From the inside out
I scream.

I never notice during, though,
As if the lust and end result
Were better not discussed

'Til later. And still

From the inside out
I scream.

It's not enough to wind, to grind,
To pull and push and cup and suck.
There must be more, surely?

And so, when done,

From the inside out
I scream.

"That's him!" He'll do. For now. But no.
My mind, always unsure, will tell.
And then I'm back to One.

Just me; just me.

From the inside out
I scream.

Words: "Untitled", a poem by writer and actor Stefan Adegbola.
Images: Rykard, lensed by Urban Shotz Photography.

EVERYTHING LENSED

ELSEWHERE - Urban Shotz Photography

ELSEWHERE - Sanya in España

THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE

*Pop the champagne corks! Uncle Ken is gonna mount a rescue in 2012. Slay the horrible ogre Mister Livingstone! He's a wrong 'un for sure.

*It's happening in a city near you: "gentrification" (a.k.a. marginalization) of dirty downtown realness. Give us your hustlers, your trannies, your homeless, your loud flaming fags... UH UH, NOT IN MY NEIGHBOURHOOD!

*Hitler must be spinning in his grave, as a degenerate hotel for homosexuals opens in Berlin. I ought to have been in Berlin last weekend, had my bff not become unemployed (don't worry, he's back in the rat race again).

*Virgin Media Television axes Trouble channel after 11 years. The home of Girlfriends and teen sitcoms like One On One, it's to be replaced by another Living channel (i.e. more excrement for women like Grey's Anatomy, Lipstick Jungle, Most Haunted... and Criminal Minds. Oooooh, is that Shemar Moore? Mmmmmmmmm damn he BUFF! And Mandy Patinkin off Chicago Hope too, the best hospital series ever...)

*The guns, the guns, the guns... I can't think, all I can see are the guns, the guns, the guns...

*A bad week for polar bears. Following mounting fears for their survival in an Arctic with rapidly melting sea ice, comes the sickening news of Rich People paying $US35,000 for the fun of killing one.

*Twin Towers in Paris!

*Noisy trains in London!

*London in Braille!

*Buy a whole English village!

*A minimum price for alcohol threatened, an idea promptly shelved by the PM (sighs of relief all round).

*Is this blog getting worse? Probably. That's because the brain takes early retirement at 27. I hate boffins. (Still, how sexy is the guy in the photo they've used?)

*EastEnders facing a budget cut. Could've fooled me - how cool is last night's trailer for Peggy's wedding? And is Archie the scariest Daddy ever?

*And while we're on the subject of soaps, are they to blame for booze binge Blighty, or are they reflecting the reality of Britain's drinking culture? Campaign groups think the former.

*The 100 Greatest Songs Of All Time, according to the Telegraph. (Yawn.)

*And in other music news, 2 Unlimited back together for the first time since 1996 (Ray Slijngaard was the Most Beautiful Boy In The World back then. Not so much now.)

*Pet Shop Boys new single features a B-side about the police shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in 2005.

*"Madonna has crucified Baby Jesus one last time so that he can fly away and play with infants his own age. The Daily Star says Baby Jesus has been released from Vadge's roided-up cooch of death after she saw pictures of him in Brazil with a young piece." Yes, it's the end of the affair, as only dlisted can do it.

*No, not the poor gays. It's the gay poor.

*Obama channels Dubya.

*Post post-post-colonialism. Okay, so he's not saying it right, but there's more than a modicum of common sense in what he's saying. But it's drowned out by hysterical screams of "RACIST!"

*And finally, Reggie Bush's ass.

THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE will appear every Saturday

ISSUE 01

On the cover: The Harem, by Anthony Gayton.

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"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..." LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING

THE FELLOW WHO caused him to stop one afternoon and sit down on a grassy rise to watch the soccer game was no more than twenty, the first flush of beauty; and yet, as he ran with the ball through the clouds of dust stirred by the game, Malone watched him with a certain detachment, earned by years of desperation. Five years before, this person would have stabbed him in the heart, engendered such despair that he would have obsessed Malone the rest of that day and night; and he would have gone out to the bars or baths hoping to find someone of his type. And the next afternoon he would have returned to the Sheep Meadow on the chance that he might be playing. Now it was something else. He wore old white gym shorts and a faded red polo shirt. He had black, black hair and large dark eyes and he had not spent summer in the sun for his skin was ivory-white. Years before, Malone would have gone home and called someone up and said, "You should have seen the kid I saw in the Park today!" as if something, someone had to memorialize such wonders. Now he simply accepted it. Now he new very well that this young man's beauty was just that - a fact: his beauty - and that he, Malone, could not worship it, or worse (the fault of so many people he knew still), possess it, consume it, digest it... Pictures: singer and model Paulo Pascoal. Text: Excerpt from "Dancer From The Dance" by Andrew Holleran. EVERYTHING LENSED

...out of time

"The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there..."

ONE OF THE really great things to come out of Australia is Blue+ magazine.

Known as (not only) Blue when it launched in 1995, it claims to be the "top photography journal for connoisseurs of the male form".

But it wasn't just photography. It was everything weird and wonderful about the lives of The Gays. Searing accounts of sex clubs in Paris with equally charged photos, stories of criminals-cum-porn stars, and art. Tom of Finland, Pierre et Gilles, Sadao Hasegawa... It fed my young, eager mind, and my mind's eye. And then I went out into the real gay world. After the colour, imagination, energy and promise of Blue, it was a dismal disappointment. But that's another story.

This is Sadao Hasegawa. The only book of his work (now out of print) sells for upwards of $US400 on Amazon. You might not have heard of him. He killed himself in Bangkok on November 20, 1999, you see. He didn't leave a letter telling us why. But he did leave his extraordinary art.

I hope you like it.

THE STORY OF THE GOFFNEY TWINS

SO, WHAT WAS really up with those twins?

Details has the full story of notorious gay porn twins Keyon and Taleon Goffney.

All the elements are in place: sex, lies, videotape, and a side order of burglary, cosmetic surgery, and betrayal.

The players include Ralph Lauren, Nike, FlavaWorks and BlackMen.net, with a special guest appearance by Marc Williams.

It's a stunning, Only-In-America story, tinged with sadness - and one that hasn't yet reached its climax.

Stay tuned.

ELSEWHERE - THE CURIOUS CASE OF GAY-PORN-STAR IDENTICAL TWINS

PREVIOUSLY - GOFFNEY TWINS SENTENCED

PREVIOUSLY - GOFFNEY TWINS ARRESTED