LENSED

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..." LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
IT'S A FAIR cop, guv, slap the bracelets on and have done. The story of how the Brazilian photographers responsible for these photographs came together is intriguing. BeautifulMag has their story. Partnership Sandro Mantovani and Maykson Ribet lensed model Ricardo. EVERYTHING LENSED ELSEWHERE - Sandro & Maykson: When 2 Become 1 ELSEWHERE - Sandro & Maykson (Official)

THE WEEK ACCORDING TO GARÇON STUPIDE

*The story of a porn star and a Christian school. Thank God for America.

*Senegal, where SGL men can't even rest in peace. Imams in the mostly Muslim country have denounced homosexuals.

*Russia, where Eurovision shines a light on human rights abuses suffered by the SGL community. Eurovision: yes, really.

*The Daily Dish wonders if "those of us in the gay movement who backed Obama seem like fools".

*"We see this [homosexuality] as a serious illness in the community that has been spreading rapidly among the youth after it was brought in from the outside by American soldiers. These are not the habits of Iraq or our community and we must eliminate them." So speaks the Iraqi butcher behind the murders of dozens of gay Iraqi men.

*Inbred septic tanks (i.e. yanks: at least, that's what my old man used to call Americans, and in this case the term is wholly appropriate) are amongst Britain's 16 Least Wanted. No, it isn't a new ITV reality gameshow, it's the Home Office list of 16 individuals barred from entering Blighty. The Phelps loonies are on there - but why isn't Jasmine Cunt-ick, er, I mean, Jasmyne Cannick?

*London is Europe's dirtiest city, according to TripAdvisor, and we're the worst dressed locals too, apparently. On the plus side, we rate highly on public parks, nightlife and free attractions. I can think of at least one activity that's free, happens at night in a public park, and can get pretty dirty. But that's just me.

*We like a bit of football player titillation every week. Usually, plastic boy whore Christiano Ronaldo provides the entertainment, but this week it's Nicklas Bendtner, with his jeans around his knees getting thrown out of Boujis nightclub. My night taxi goes past there. I never see anything like this, sadly.

*60% of those Londoners subjected tp random police stop and searches are white. A Met police spokesman said: "No one community is singled-out or targeted, terrorists come from all backgrounds". Yes, because there were plenty of Japanese, Mexicans and Swedes involved in 9/11, 7/7 and almost any other terrorist atrocity you care to mention committed in recent times, weren't there?

*Clash A'Da Tight 1's, a film: "I set out to show the art of hip hop, the rapping, the dancing and graffiti but also the entrepreneurial side," film-maker Teddy Nygh told the Evening Standard. "But I also saw the film as a way of addressing people's misconceptions about hip hop."

*Bad boys. Really, bad boys.

*This game is for children aged 8-10: a street filled with paedophiles and drug-dealers. And it cost us £8 million. Money well spent, then.

*The death of Alexander Mosley: the net result of journalism dictated by dollars?

*Canadian Inuit seal hunters vs. Euro-MPs, with seals somewhere in between. "They don't acknowledge the rights of Inuit to earn a living from selling our products," says Inuit-rights activist Aaju Peter. "This is going to hurt us. We are humans." Not as much as the vile butchery of innocent animals.

*"Dog Food Tastes Just Like Pâté". Gee, I could've told you that, and I haven't tasted either. I don't need to. I haven't ever tasted the end product of consumption of those products, but I know that I wouldn't like it if I did.

*I wonder if Chanel's ever dined on pâté? At 21 (120 in human years, apparently) Chanel's allegedly the world's oldest dog. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww...



*The world's second largest shark has a Caribbean hideout. Alright for some, innit.

*A great, big, cone! Yeah.

*How much sugar is in your food? Well, if you're too f**king stupid to read labels, you can visit SugarStacks.com and find out by looking at stacks of sugar cubes pictured next to food products. A Snickers bar has 7.5 cubes of sugar in it. I counted them all by myself, too.

*Look at blue things and you'll be more creative. My favourite colour is red, red is everywhere in my habitat. Maybe that's why I always have writer's block. Alternatively, knock back some hard liquor. I'm halfway through a bottle of Semillon Chardonnay as I write this. The words flow easier; unfortunately, I can't remember how the sentence started.

*Futurists. That's a cool moniker, innit? I should like to be called a futurist. Actual futurists are people with names like Vernor Vinge and, er, Walt Disney. NewScientist looks at five futurists and what they got right.

*WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Okay, so bird flu was a damp squid, and swine flu hasn't killed us all yet, so, wait for it - "Expert warns of a swine flu-bird flu mix". Is that, like, when the Daleks and Cybermen finally crossed death rays a couple of years back? That was a load of old s**t too.

*A euthanasia activist (blimey, there really is an activist for everything) has staged a suicide workshop in Bournemouth, hosted by Dr. Philip Nitschke. He introduced the audience to his Deliverance Machine, and the Exit bag.

*More men are nipping and tucking, apparently. What, to look like Mickey Rourke? Burt Reynolds? Or, er, Michael Jackson?

*So don't take what you've got for granted. It could all be gone in the time it takes to fire a gun.

*Boffin uses quantum physics to make a case for intervening in our lives. Oh, piss off.

*Dear God, stop brainwashing children: worship is forced on 99 per cent of children. One of the few positive things I can think to say of Australia is that the school system there is irreligious. Religion should have no place in education - so why does it still fester?

*Big Brother has two more years in it. Uh huh.

*Star Trek porn!

*Gay Chat Room Fight!
*Promises, promises: Beyoncé 'considering two-year break'. Well don't wear yourself out love, hell, take four years. Have a nice, long rest. Please.


ISSUE 08

On the cover: Dominique Hollington, by William Lords.

LENSED

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..." LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
KEVIN SLACK LOVES Cuba. The Canadian-born photographer has a whole gallery of stunningly beautiful images to show for it. This series, Playa del Chivo, is described thus: "On Goat Beach I hve seen no goats (chivos) but there is a vast cratered beach, an abandoned armoury, made up in dirty graffiti, where in the dark corners, yes even as we worked, boys cruise and buzz with hungry insect lust..." Be sure to check out that graffiti, and the rest of Slack's beautiful images. EVERYTHING LENSED ELSEWHERE - BeautifulMag Interview: Kevin Slack Mi Tierra, vol.1 ELSEWHERE - Kevin Slack Photography

THIS TRAILER WILL BLOW YOUR MIND

...AND MAYBE TURN the world upside down.

Do Começo Ao Fim (From Beginning To End) is the most exciting piece of cinema to come along in a long time, tackling an emotionally charged and controversial issue few of us care to think about, let alone discuss.

I'll be writing about this subject soon, from my own personal perspective. For now, it's all about the film.

SUMMER OF MAXWELL

I'M A LITTLE late with this, but since I missed it, maybe you did to.

 After literally years of rumours and missed release dates, Columbia Records has announced that Maxwell's long-awaited fourth studio album, BLACKsummers'night, will definitely be released on 7th July - this year.

It's been 8 years since his last album, Now, which featured Fortunate, For Lovers Only and This Woman's Work. Maxwell is one of the lost generation of genius neo-soul artists who burned bright and brief. D'Angelo released Voodoo in 2000, and Lauryn Hill took 10 years to follow up her debut. Fortunately, Maxwell doesn't appear to have been damaged by any demons he might be fighting, as his aforementioned peers have been. A recent tour boosted the notoriously private and retiring singer: "Just the encouragement, you can't imagine," Maxwell says, speaking at a launch event in New York last week. "I'm an insecure person at best... I feel like going on the road, I got so much inspiration. "I didn’t intentionally step away from all of it, but I just wanted to… live my life a little bit, and then be able to make music with that pure experience again." I really can't wait for this record to drop. July can't come soon enough.

 PREVIOUSLY - F*** Your Art, I Wanna See Your Ass: The Curse Of Untitled 
PREVIOUSLY - Maxwell: Now?
ELSEWHERE - Maxwell Introduces New Album BLACKsummers'night

7

AN 18 YEAR-OLD boy has been stabbed to death in Deptford, South London.

The body of Adam Pervaiz (right) was found in the stairwell of a block of flats around noon today. He is the 7th boy to die as the result of violent crime this year; less than a fortnight ago, 16 year-old Oluwaseyi Ogunyemi was stabbed to death in Lambeth.

In 2008, the lives of 28 teenage boys were prematurely curtailed.

*Last updated 20:23hrs 10/05/09.

VIEW ALL: Teenagers Who Died Before They Lived

ELSEWHERE - Teenager found dead in stairwell

PREVIOUSLY - How Do You Get Inside The Head Of A 16-Year Old Knife Wielding Thug?

1800 VAGINA SPONGE

THIS IS TOO much. Lord, help me.

ELSEWHERE - The House Of Majesty

BOOKED

10 ka-os novels: read, reading and coming up...
01 The Story of the Night Colm Tóibín 02 Dancer From The Dance Andrew Holleran 03 Got 'Til It's Gone Larry Duplechan REVIEW 04 Breathe Blair R. Poole REVIEW 05 Adventures of a Bird-Shit Foreigner Sulayman X REVIEW 06 The Boys and the Bees Joe Babcock 07 Looker Stanley Bennett Clay 08 Dancing With The Devil Taylor Siluwe REVIEW 09 Six Positions Andy Quan READING 10 Manhood: The Longest Moan L.M. Ross COMING UP Interact - leave a comment if you've read one of these books, or if you have a suggestion.

REVIEW

IT'S DIFFICULT TO sum up When Romeo Wakes, the opening salvo in Taylor Siluwé's debut short story anthology.

A string of adjectives easily spring to mind - shocking, surprising, sexy, surreal, gripping, frightening, brutal, numbing... Oh, and deeply poignant.

When Romeo Wakes makes a statement: Siluwé's work is something different, a revelation, a bit special. This review is going to be biased, because I'm truly smitten. Dancing With The Devil blew me away; it is, quite simply, the best thing I've read in a very long time, and I've read some pretty decent novels lately. There's a poetic, hypnotic flow to Siluwé's writing, and at the same time an exciting urgency that sucks you up and whisks you away in a storm of visceral imagery and Machiavellian twists and turns. Breeding Season, a picture of high school infatuation that crackles with teen angst, is a perfect example; Siluwé eases the reader in, caresses you, toys with you, until he's got you just where he wants you, and then- BOOM! The story takes a startling U-turn, not once, but twice. Beneath Paradise, the third tale, probes "sex and salvation", pondering on the clash between religion and sexuality - and the prisons we build for ourselves. Pretty Young Gangsters is a highly-charged set piece, a Nihilist tale of lessons not learnt, and one that struck a cord with this reader, in more ways than one. The grand finale, the eponymous Dancing With The Devil, is perhaps the darkest and most provocative of all the stories here, Siluwé (pictured) going all out in his exploration of the dark forces inside us all. Taylor Siluwé's collection is thrilling, brave, truthful, sexy and memorable. The only downside is you'll be left wanting more.

ELSEWHERE - The Best of Men: Dancing With Taylor

LENSED

"You don't take a photograph. You ask, quietly, to borrow it..." LENSED: IMAGE IS EVERYTHING
A LITTLE MORE of Anthony Isambert's photography. I knew/know a boy who's the double of the dude on the far left in the monochrome 5 shot. I used to be kinda crazy about him, but not now. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and all that... Yesterday I was walking in the Tube and I heard a young male/female couple walking'n'talking behind me; middle-class middle-England uni-scum, judging by their voices. "He eats queer, he sounds queer," I heard them say of some poor acquaintance, who may or may not actually be "queer". Middle-class, college-educated straight people: please, bring on the pandemic. It'll get us too, but it'll get more of them. EVERYTHING LENSED PREVIOUSLY - LENSED: Anthony Isambert ELSEWHERE - isambertphotography.com
 
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