LENSED

"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

...out of time

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

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.

And They Say Gays Shouldn't Bring Children Up?

"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?

The End Of The World Was Only The Beginning

This Sunday, the BBC launches Survivors, a re-imagining of the apocalyptic 1970s drama of the same name:

Imagine being the only survivor of a disease that kills every member of your family, that kills lovers, strangers, friends, nearly everyone you've ever met.

You are among the lonely few to live and now you must start over in a strange new world where everything that was once safe and familiar is now strange and dangerous.

Set in the present day, Survivors focuses on the world in the aftermath of a devastating virus which wipes out most of the world's population. What would we do? How would any of us cope in a brave new world where all traditional 21st Century comforts - electricity, clean running water, advanced technology - have disappeared?

These are the questions faced by the bewildered but resilient group of survivors at the centre of the drama. It is an opportunity for new beginnings, but with no society, no police and no law and order, they now face terrible dangers - not just the daily struggle for food and water but also the deadly threat from other survivors.

Fortunately, the few people who survive the virus are Very Good Looking, like ka-os blog favourite Paterson Joseph, Al Sadiq and that black girl out of Doctor Who. Yes indeed, unlike the 1970s original, our survivors aren't all white middle class people.

Paterson Joseph's presence alone makes Survivors a very promising prospect. More on this after the series debut on Sunday. Check out the trailer below.

Simon Takes A Shower

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.

From The Mouths Of Babes

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.

Even Ricky's Package Isn't This Big

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.

Delayno, Romario & Baby P, Who Died Before They Lived

Tortured and murdered by their own mothers in Great Britain in 2008. Do not tell me there's a God.

If anyone wanted to make a case for humanity being lost, and a lost cause, this, and this would make it.

Friends & Lovers

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...

Proposition 8: All White Gay People Are Bad!

"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.

Elsewhere, the adorable-looking Reverend Irene Monroe (below) was trying to build the bridges Cuntick - er, I mean, Cannick - is intent on destroying: "The present-day contentious 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."

Reverend Monroe talks a lot of sense. I like her.

Towleroad has comprehensive coverage of the Proposition 8 drama, which seems to be all about white vs black and not at all about Us vs Them. And that's a shame.

So kids, what lessons have we learned today? 1). White gay people can be quite racist (but it's wrong and bad). 2). Black gay people can be quite racist (but it's ok and totally justified). 3). Not all black lesbians are Evil Bitch C***s (and at least one is jolly pretty). 4). Mormons are bad.