KAOS: April 2012

review

Strangers On A Train

e swap murders! Criss cross!" This is the proposition made to tennis star Farley Granger by a neurotic fan, the brilliant Robert Walker, in Alfred Hitchcock's film version of Patricia Highsmith's Strangers On a Train.

Hitchcock always maintained that the villain had to be the most interesting character in the picture. For the role of the psychopathic Bruno Anthony, he decided to go against type and cast veteran comic actor Robert Walker, to stunning results. Walker's Bruno is like a spoiled child, funny, cunning, naughty and lethal. It's a bravura performance that should have led to many more, but Walker died soon after the film was completed. He surrounds his leads, Ruth Roman and Farley Granger, with an array of the best character actors in Hollywood. First, there's Leo G. Carroll who appeared in more Hitchcock films than anyone else, Marion Lorne as Bruno's eccentric and hilarious mother, Laura Eliot (Casey Adams) as Granger's unfaithful wife and eventual murder victim and Hitch's daughter Pat as the wisecracking, comic relief. The premise is fascinating, the plot twisting and the suspense unbearable. It's summer Hitchcock at it's best! Steve Hayes

(Syndication is with the kind permission of Steve Hayes.)

a news compendium

with a gay bias
WEEKLY | Issue 119 | April 2012 | FREE | be.told.

OPENING SHOTS

< Let's kick off with one of a bunch of new shots of Brazilian twins Márcio and Marcos Patriota, by Terry Richardson.

> Queer to the core. "Gay punk comes out with a vengeance. An oral history of the movement that changed the world (whether you knew it or not)."

||||| Homophobes who were secretly gay: "From FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover to Chistian TV preacher Ted Haggard."

||||| Where are all the gay comedians?

< Is black, gay art too kitschy?

||||| Gay men and drugs: "There's something different about G, we're really just scratching the surface."

US & CANADA NEWS

> Did transsexual legend Marsha P. Johnson start the Stonewall riots? That's the question The Saint of Christopher Street raises.

||||| The curious link between Wal-Mart stores and hate groups.

||||| The media use too many anti-gay faith voices, a GLAAD report has found, despite most US religious people being pro-gay.

||||| The gay panic defense and Trayvon Martin.

< Violence and race: a two-way street, by LZ Granderson. "Something different happened inside when I saw the video of a white tourist being savagely beaten and stripped by a bunch of black thugs in Baltimore over St. Patrick's Day weekend."

> The parents of Trayvon Martin listen as murders charges against George Zimmerman are announced.

||||| Whoopi Goldberg and Don Lemon are now speaking for black America? How did that happen?

||||| Sins of omission. "President Obama... has inexcusably refused to issue an executive order banning discrimination by federal contractors based on sexual orientation or gender identity."

< Jailed for wearing sagging jeans.

||||| LA police to open trans only section in jail.

||||| Remember last week's story about the LA restroom sting? Coverage of arrests - which included publishing pictures and the names of the 18 gay men involved - has drawn criticism.

||||| Meanwhile, Boston's cops have been busting a "frat hazing ritual", in which "underwear-clad pledges" were "covered in condiments".

||||| Brandon White speaks out on his brutal gay-bashing, and the allegations by Atlanta activists that he knew his attackers.

||||| San Diego to be the first city to get a Harvey Milk Street?

||||| 30,000 attendees set White Party record.

> Jesus is not a homophobe: Identity harassment and first amendment rights at school.

||||| The high school football players who stood up for a bullied teen.

UK NEWS

||||| National Union of Teachers vote to tackle homophobia.

< Christians plan law suit over bus advert ban.

||||| But did their anti-gay bus ads take their cue from Stonewall's "misguided campaign"? "The gay rights charity's provocative sloganeering may have ended up doing more harm than good."

||||| Anti-gay Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri can be extradited to the US on terrorism charges, the European Court of Human Rights rules.

> Last week we heard how a Catholic priest "accidentally" projected gay porn to an audience of primary school parents. An investigation into the incident has been hindered by the theft of the laptop involved.

||||| Analysis: The multi-million pound "gay divorce".

< London Mayor Boris Johnson fails to make a single reference to the gay community in his 152 page manifesto. Black Londoners are only mentioned in the crime section. Johnson removed the Greater London Assembly from the Stonewall equality index when he took office.

||||| London's annual gay arts festival, GFEST, is seeking submissions.

||||| Titanic at 100: Why we can't let go of the Titanic.

< Titanic at 100: Overlooked black passengers add another facet to the story. Left, Haitian-born Joseph Laroche, "believed to be the only black man among the passengers on the Titanic".

> Titanic at 100: The canine casualties.

||||| Titanic at 100: Fascinating photos of life on the Titanic.

||||| Rip-off Britain: why is everything so expensive?

EUROPE NEWS

< HUNGARY: Fears over new "gay propaganda" bill.

||||| ITALY: A new wave of gay hate.

||||| GERMANY: Incest couple lose European Court case.

LATIN AMERICA NEWS

||||| VENEZUELA: Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro gets big round of applause for "facist faggots" slur.

> JAMAICA: Fighting injustice in Jamaica. "We must recognize our failings and the urgent need for reinvention."

AFRICA NEWS

< NIGERIA: Lawyer Robert Igbinedion to sue Nigerian government over its anti-gay bill.

||||| LIBERIA: President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf backtracks on her support for anti-gay legislation, now claiming she will "veto any legislation that would criminalise homosexual behaviour in the country".

||||| GAMBIA: 15 men "suspected of homosexuality" arrested in bar raid.

> SOUTH AFRICA: Mr Gay World - less than ambivalent, more than a pretty face. "The apparent ambivalence of [Jacob] Zuma on homosexuality is arguably illustrative of the South African gay rights contradiction: a country that was fifth in the world to legalise gay marriage, yet which struggles to stop the brutal corrective rape of lesbians and violent attacks on gays. A country that tries very hard to tolerate homosexuality, but which struggles to accept it."

SOUTHERN ASIA NEWS

||||| INDIA: The baby tortured to death for being born a girl.

||||| INDIA: Gay couple "on the run" after illegal marriage.

< INDIA: Competitors flex their muscles for Mr. Mumbai title.

MIDDLE EAST NEWS

||||| UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Four men jailed for sex in public. The British and Sychelles nationals had sex under a tree. Two Bangladeshi men have also been jailed for sex in a public toilet.

> Pictures from Afghanistan, March 2012.

BODY & MIND

< Boffins have engineered stem cells to seek out and kill HIV in living organisms.

||||| Why more men are getting bikini waxes than ever.

> Too beautiful to be true?

||||| Personal trainers: A luxury or a necessity?

||||| Gay adults rejected by parents have worse health.

||||| Myths about left handedness, including those us lefties believe ourselves.

||||| Psychiatrist Robert Spitzer retracts his 2001 claim that gay people can be converted, and now says so called "gay cures" are harmful.

OUR PLANET

< Endangered African animals, in pictures.

> Man charged after six puppies found in suitcase.

||||| Texting man comes face to face with bear. There's a lesson there, kids.

||||| Why are some Asian glaciers gaining mass?

> There's an elephant on Mars!

||||| Phew! Our solar system is normal.

WEB & GADGETS

||||| How the tech parade passed Sony by.

||||| Little boy lost finds his mother using Google Earth.

< Addicted to Grindr. "Because Grindr is location-based it can get very boring very quickly. Sometimes I feel like moving out of my neighbourhood because I feel like I've 'Ground' everyone there."

||||| The Grindr Awards for gayest cities, beaches, and marital destinations.

||||| Is Facebook making us lonely?

||||| Jon Stewart on Facebook's acquisition of Instagram: "A billion dollars of money? For a thing that kind of ruins your pictures?"

||||| Facebook criticised over half-baked data download tool.

||||| Life after Firefox: Can Mozilla regain its mojo?

> Classic video games reimagined as children's books.

PRINT & VISUAL

< Book igloo!

||||| Why the price of your e-book matters.

> Chinese erotic gay fiction site shut down. Founder of site imprisoned and fined - case reveals that most stories were written by young women around 20 years old.

< A gay, interracial marriage for X-Men: Northstar to marry boyfriend Kyle in the June issue of Astonishing X-Men.

||||| For sale: one of just four versions of Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream". Will accept offers in region of $US80 million.

||||| Danish architects BIG have unveiled proposals for a 150-metre-high skyscraper in downtown Vancouver, below left.

||||| House of Justice and Police Station, in Georgia, by J. Mayer H, below right.

STAGE

||||| Peep show: is it wrong to find actors attractive? "Venus in Fur is the latest play to tempt audiences into ogling its scantily clad cast. Now stage stars are being rated on sex appeal."

||||| There will be 7 performances of No Fats, No Femmes - Tim Paul's solo show - in Dublin from May 14 - May 19.

CINEMA

< Shocking: Christian groups aren't happy about Corpus Christi: Playing with Redemption, the documentary about the play depicting Jesus as a gay man in 1950s Texas.

||||| Tom Hanks to play Walt Disney in Mary Poppins backstory?

||||| Sanubari Jakarta (Jakarta Deep Down), a collection of stories about gay life in the capital of Indonesia, has been released.

||||| Universal to release digitally remastered and restored Jaws to commemorate the studio's 100th anniversary.

> Hypotheticals: Kubrick's Napoleon.

< Elegant minimalist posters for Disney movies.

> Pop heroes and villains transformed in vintage family photos.

||||| Talking to Eating Out: The Open Weekend actor Michael Vara.

||||| Review: The Skinny. "Don't come in expecting Noah's Arc 2.0, because this film is very different."

< Review: Absent. "A stonking piece of cinema. The cinematography is stunning – the close-up shots of Martín are some of the sexiest, most sensual of the male body ever captured on film – the direction is surefooted and the acting seamless. Intelligent, artful and intense, the film is just a hair's breadth from being perfect."

> Review: First Position. "It's a cliché that all gay men love ballet and opera, but that doesn't mean we aren't moved by such frou-frou art forms. In fact, there's no better way to experience the paradox of ballet — its arresting beauty and the torturous toll it takes on those who practice it, physically, emotionally and financially — than with the documentary First Position. Forget Black Swan and all its overwrought incipient insanity — this is the real deal."

||||| Review: I Want Your Love. "An unflinching and rarely seen portrait, not just of gay male sexuality, but of male sexuality generally."

||||| Review: Jitters. "...succeeds in depicting accurately the devil-may-care view on life dominant among Icelandic youth... [But] it is difficult to discern exactly what Jitters wants to be."

||||| Review: Encounters. "The films are four unique and surprising look at gay life in a bygone era, and are great markers of society and politics of the time."

||||| Movies or TV? Or both? Or neither?

||||| Trailer: Stud Life.

TV

< Talking to Matthew Stephen Herrick, one of the stars of new gay drama DTLA.

||||| Paul Iacono, star of MTV's The Hard Times of RJ Berger, comes out: "I think it's the right time to say something."

||||| All the latest from your favourite gay characters in soap - from all over the world. Anthony D. Langford guides us through it.

> Australian soap Neighbours shows its first gay kiss in its 27 year history. (Blink and you'll miss it.)

||||| Former Will & Grace star Sean Hayes gets snippy with reporter for asking about "it" and "that".

||||| Fellow former child stars have a message for homophobe Kirk Cameron.

||||| 10 things Glee could learn from Smash. "In the war of the warblers, new upstart Smash shows its sillier cousin how to do musical drama."

||||| Ranking 20-somethings' TV jobs from most to least realistic.

< Seinfeld "Soup Nazi" reunion: Jason Alexander teams up with the soup man.

||||| Logo confirms a fifth season of RuPaul's Drag Race; ABC renews General Hospital - America's last daytime soap - for another year.

> 15 of the all-time most powerful women on TV. Right, Doctor Who's ferocious Leela.

||||| Watch: A fascinating video essay on The Wire's visual style. "Erlend Lavik... [dissects] the show's minimalist aesthetic, its unusual framing, the way it uses depth of field, and more."

< A new exhibition of art inspired by Twin Peaks.

||||| Infographics: Fictional character birthday calendars.

||||| Former The Bill actor Colin Tarrant took his own life after becoming depressed, a coroner has ruled.

MUSIC

> Rah Digga hits back at Tyler, The Creator in epic diss track: "Fuck is you creatin', son, a whole generation / Of some, hey Horton, skateboardin', worshippin' Satan asses / Bingein' on drugs, somebody get me the gloves / I don't think they need deals, man, I think they need hugs / And I was trying to support this young black man / It's too bad you probably lost your only black fan..."

...But they've since kissed and made up, apparently.

||||| A Tribe Called Quest legend Q-Tip signs to Kanye West's G.O.O.D Music label.

||||| Brotherly love: The return of the hip hop crew.

||||| Lupe Fiasco confirms Food & Liquor 2: Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 is finished.

< Marvin from JLS causes "fury" over shot on Titanic staircase.

> OMG! A JLS/One Direction onesie war!

||||| So, is it ever OK to wear a onesie?

||||| A whole lot of One Direction nipples.

||||| Watch RuPaul's GLAMAZON music video.

||||| Jill Scott seethes as white bitch gets her claws into a brother: Kim Kardashian is Kanye West's Beyonce.

||||| Justin Bieber backs controversial documentary Bully with loan of his track Born To Be Somebody.

||||| London's Rough Trade to open a record store in Brooklyn.

||||| The 30 best kiss-offs in musical history...

...And the 25 greatest breakup songs of the 1980s.

THE SEX BIZ

< THE KAOS THEORY favourite Jovonnie is still in love with on/off boyfriend CityBwoi.

> Sad: Flava Works' Elmo Jackson - known to his mother as William Ratliff - is back in jail. "This time until 2016," Flava Works Tweeted.

||||| So - just how bad are American "supermax" prisons?

||||| Is this Elmo's last performance?

< Bel Ami's Manuel Rios and Mick Lovell go bareback. Er, I mean "condom-free".

> On set with Race Cooper.

||||| A behind-the-scenes look at The Porn Brat Pack, a biopic about "porn royality" such as Chi Chi Larue and Joey Stefano.

||||| Diesel Washington is shooting a web mini series "starring some the sexiest men of colour today".

< It's all sun, sea, sand and sex for Brazilian porn star Harry Louis and designer Marc Jacobs on Ipanema Beach.

> Meet CocoDorm's Dzyer Whyte.

< Flava Works' commemorates the sinking of the Titanic. Kind of.

> Tony Shantie, the former All Worlds model who performed as Tanner Hayes, is dead. He was 40.

SPORT

||||| Watch New York University Athletics department's It Gets Better film.

||||| NFL player Roddy White offends with homophobic tweets.

PARTING SHOTS

< The most commonly misunderstood fantasy creatures.

> Tiny food sculptures!

< The Giant Cubebot, by David Weeks.

||||| About The Black Sex Master.

||||| No more Texts from Hillary!

||||| And finally this week... OMG! Thomas Elliot is here! And Sweet Brown doesn't have time for bronchitis.