Steel trees, college meat, Blatinos and the Philippines

The new World Trade Center is rapidly taking shape...

||| ...And a video of how the Ground Zero site will look when it has been rebuilt.

||| The steel tridents salvaged from the collapse of the Twin Towers have returned to Ground Zero.

||| "As gay culture discovers joy of maturity, parenting transforms our lives." Transforms? How about diminishes? Or deadens?

||| Homophobia and high office: "Throughout history, rumours of homosexuality have been enough to sink the most powerful."

||| Apparently, some guys on Grindr are racist, or just not into particular types. Who would have thought?

US & CANADA

||| "Gay cure" fraudsters Exodus International are denied charitable status in New Zealand - but Canada takes the opposite approach.

||| Evangelical Christians rally against gays, abortion, and middle-aged men who play video games. Sadly, it would seem hunger, poverty, homelessness, human rights, domestic abuse and AIDS are not on their prayer agenda.

||| Gay journalists shift focus to keeping jobs.

||| The "major paradigm shift" on the historiography of Abraham Lincoln's sexuality - and his relationship with Joshua Speed.

||| Why does my son keep coming out to me?

||| Model Ronnie Brown (left) had his ear bitten off by a drag queen in a New York bar. He's since lost it again.

||| Poppers manufacturer goes bust, owner commits suicide.

||| Yes, that was New York's hottest ever summer.

||| Why don't African Americans swim?

UK

||| Britain is a "selfish, hedonistic wasteland" and "the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death", according to a leading Catholic aide. Why? Because of the expansion of gay rights, of course.

||| Gay and lesbian Christians criticise plans to disrupt the Pope's visit: Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement wants critics to 'disagree with respect'.

||| Schools must balance ethos with equality: "Faith based schools are on the rise in the UK, apparently boosting educational standards. But are religious values at odds with legislation on equality?"

||| The visit to Soho gay bar LoProfile by Labour leadership hopeful David Miliband (mentioned last week), went ahead. The not-unattractive MP told PinkPaper.com, "It's fashionable to trash the Labour record but this is one area where, why should we? We actually did massively more than we ever conceived that we would. I'm open minded about whether we could do more but let's celebrate what we did do."

EUROPE

||| A male-prostitute trafficking ring has been busted in Spain. The victims - from Brazil - were plied with Viagra and cocaine and made to perform sex "around the clock".

||| Brazil is making efforts to help the men who wish to return home.

AMERICAS

||| Cuba: Fidel Castro takes the blame for gay persecution in the 1960s.

||| Argentina: Over 100 gay and lesbian couples have married in the 30 days since the country became the first in the region to legalise gay marriage.

||| Jamaica: Not positive on HIV. "A glimpse of the views on homosexuality and HIV from the perspective of the government, the church, and the citizens of Jamaica."

AFRICA

||| South Africa: GBLT foreigners face rabid xenophobia in the aftermath of the World Cup.

||| South African pastor: Jesus was HIV positive.

ASIA PACIFIC

||| The problem of "bang ye" - or exposing grandfathers.

||| China: Gay visibility a sign of "the most rapid, transformative change of any large country in the world today".

||| In Malaysia, the battle for equality is slowly building in momentum. Left, Reverend Ouyang Wen Feng - Malaysia's only openly gay pastor. The 40-year-old started the country's first gay church, in Kuala Lumpur.

||| What does the Mr Gay World Philippines contest tell us about being gay in the Philippines?

||| See all the contestants here.

||| More coverage on the event from France24.

||| India: Gay model grilled in diamond heist.

||| New Zealand: The story of Matt Wright, the "sole staff member in charge of the three level inner-city cruise club and sauna" Menfriends, the night disaster struck.

MIDDLE EAST

||| A return to Baghdad: What changed and what didn't since 2007. "It was as if there were two different Baghdads... I would see a hospital where the bodies of gay men had been dumped, their anuses closed shut from a heavy glue used to torture them. I would visit a safe house, chatting with gay men and transgender Iraqis who hid for safety, yet at the same time were welcoming and life-affirming, teaching me gay Arabic slang and joking about sex with gay Saddam-look-alikes."

BODY & MIND

||| Boffins to test cancer drug on HIV.

||| Good news (for me, anyway...): Heavy drinkers outlive non-drinkers.

||| Smoking cannabis "alleviates pain and depression".

||| Coffee is good for the heart, boffins claim.

||| Insomniac men four times more likely to die early. Similarly, teenagers who spend nights online are tripling their chances of developing mental illness.

FOOD

||| What a Whopper! Burger King sold to (yawn) investment (yawn) firm 3G. BK might taste better, but it has struggled against the dominance of McDonald's.

||| So, can Burger King rediscover its sizzle?

||| China: One in 10 meals cooked using oil dredged from the sewer.

||| Crisps: They're fried in fat and smothered in salt, but still we eat a heart-stopping 6bn packets of them a year. So why do we have an unhealthy obsession with potato crisps?

||| The champagne bottle gets a green makeover.

ZOOLOGY

||| Why the mighty elephant is afraid of ants.

||| Animal pictures of the week (26 more pictures). Left, an Orangutan two baby lion cubs in South Carolina. Right: Time of the month, ladies? Two lionesses attack a lion in South Africa.

PLANET

||| Stephen Hawking says universe not created by God.

||| WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! No, really. This is frightening.

WEB & GADGETS

||| Diaspora - an open-source "privacy aware" alternative to Facebook - is coming.

||| And it's doomed.

||| Ailing social networking site MySpace has tied-in with Facebook, allowing MySpace users to sync status updates with Facebook.

WORDS & BOOKS

||| The most anticipated GBLT books of Autumn 2010.

||| Literotic: Gay erotica reviews, with Richard Labonté's Muscle Men and Biker Boys, edited by Christopher Pierce.

||| A full round-up of September's GBLT literary and publishing news.

||| Oxford English Dictionary probably won't be printed again. Blame the internet.

FILM

||| Yes, it really is him.

||| Got a spare £75,000? Then this perfect Ecto 1 replica could be yours.

||| Why I love black and white films.

TV

||| Top ten 80s TV villains.

||| The final lines of some of TV's most famous shows.

||| Reality is killing drama: Audiences with short attention spans want instant emotion.

||| I don't do Glee, but this picture (left), by by Robert Trachtenberg for Rolling Stone, raised a smile. Lovely.

||| Gaying up CBS.

||| EastEnders: Peggy's Theme - the special version of the EastEnders theme tune used for Peggy Mitchell's - exit to be released as an EP.

||| A chat with EastEnders: E20's Tosin Cole (left)...

||| ...And his onscreen brother Heshima Thompson (right).

SPORT

||| College football's beefcake photo trend: where will it all end?

||| Outsports' gallery.

SEX BIZ

||| MOC Blog is live at the 2010 Blatino Awards.

||| 2010 Blatino Awards, in pictures.

||| Further up the page, we have Animal Pictures of the Week. Here, it's Android Men, via MOC Blog. Enjoy.

||| Brent Everett, Pierre Fitch and Ralph Woods mould their Fleshjacks.

||| Wow... All those picture perfect beauties, and Calvin Klein settles for this?!

...AND FINALLY

||| Argentinian porn star cum mainstream model Dionisio Heiderscheid on a swimwear shoot.

||| READ THE LAST EDITION: ISSUE 74

||| READ ka-os|theory, ONE YEAR AGO: 06.09.09

||| READ any back issue of the ka-os|theory news compendium
from the back|issues menu in the sidebar.

||| Contact me with tips and suggestions for next week's copy! 

_____________________________________________________

Issue 75 covers 30th August - 11th September 2010

ka-os|theory is not responsible

for the content of external websites.

Best viewed on Google Chome.

POSTSCRIPT

"You know, we might just as well not have bothered to come.

The whole thing's been ridiculous."

© 2010

Walking out of an old life into a new one

review

EastEnders: 09/9/10
EastEnders: 10/09/10

Even for EastEnders, this was big.

The soap that does big momentous set pieces like no other (sorry, my beloved Coronation Street) is seeing off Peggy Mitchell - the First Lady of soap - in style. Because not only is Peggy going, but the Queen Victoria pub is too.

American readers (who make up the bulk of this blog's readership) probably don't quite get how important soap is to contemporary pop culture in the UK.

It's universal - a form of almost religious communion - and EastEnders in particular unites all. Black and white, young and old, gay and straight. It's genuine watercooler television, and everyone watches it. Immediately after (and during) transmission, everyone's Facebook status was about The Fire. Even those who don't watch it had something to say. 'Anthony' said, "Wow I think I should start watching eastenders a lot more, a whole leap of passa passa !!!"

Anthony really should tune in a lot more, because the sheer resonance of tonight's events would have largely been lost on him. Okay, it's a soap, so everyone's got some storyline behind them, but the main players in tonight's epic drama have had some corkers recently, stretching back years (even decades). That's what makes soap in Britain so thrilling - the awful weight of history bearing down on everything (in the case of Coronation Street, fifty years worth). And yet it's all so current, and so loved by The Youth.

The sickening depths to which Peggy's son Phil has sunk takes centre stage tonight. The one-time East-end hard-man, and latter day family man, has lost everything. From alcoholic to crack-head in a soap minute, but Steve McFadden is more than convincing in his role (the actor shed pounds for his latest storyline) and his cruel taunting of Peggy is gruelling to watch. It really is grim, grim stuff.

The other players - Stacey Slater, and Janine Butcher - have histories stretching back more than twenty years, and it all comes into play tonight. But they're just a sideshow, really. The Queen Victoria pub is a character in its own right, and although it isn't the first time it's gone up in flames (Phil's brother Grant torched it in the early 90s) its cremation marks the end of an era, as the Mitchell dynasty is finally finished off.

The destruction of the Queen Vic takes its cue from disaster movies, and in particular, The Towering Inferno. There's a party, full of joy and celebration, then a horrific fire, just like Inferno. The camera holds on the banner above the bar, 'Under New Management', as it goes up in flames, recalling the  flaming 'We Build For Life' slogan in Inferno. Gay Muslim character Syed is trampled repeatedly by fleeing revellers (pick any "humanity ditching its humanity" tale).

There's some other beautifully poignant shots: the Queen Victoria bust in extreme close-up, Peggy brooding in the background. Just before her confrontation with Phil, there's a solo close-up of the iconic bust, with the party noise in the background. It speaks volumes, a stoic, world weary premonition of impending doom. There's one final shot as the Vic burns around her.

The initial explosion (fire and liqour - not a good combination) is profoundly shocking. Seeing Peggy crawling around behind the bar is akin to seeing one's own mother in a similar situation. Stacey cradling her baby upstairs as flame sweeps across the ceiling is another jawdropper.

Of course, the fire - the big, crowd pleasing set piece of the week - was never going to be Peggy's exit. Everyone thought it would be, but really, who would want that? Callous disposal by violent despatch of much-loved characters ain't what EastEnders is about. The giveawway was The Great Fire of Walford going out on Thursday: the cremation of the Queen Vic was the prelude to Peggy's exit, not vice versa.

A good friend of mine has always written Barbara Windsor off as a bad actress. But I always knew she was playing Peggy exactly as she should: Peggy is an actress, putting on a performance for her public. Putting on a front, whatever's going on behind the scenes. Keeping up appearances.

Peggy Mitchell is summed up in her last little scene with Sam, Ronnie, Roxy and Billy, just before she walks out. It's one of the most poignant moments you're likely to see on TV (it's right up there with The Wire's most heart-rending scenes), just Peggy talking about her old Mum, her childhood, the old East End:

"I'd rather walk. You see my mother taught me that - she was a tough old bird, but you had to be, didn't you, in those days. And sometimes, when I was a little one, we couldn't pay the rent, and she'd run in and say, 'Kids! We gotta get out of here. So c'mon, pack now!' So we'd stuff all our things into our bags and run out the door, as fast as we could. Mum, Sal, and me, walking down that road fast, fast, walking out of an old life into a new one, and then Mum would suddenly say, "Oi, stop! Stop! And look back girls - go on, look back, and remember what you see. So we'd... we'd turn round, and we'd take it all in, and we'd store it away up here. Then we'd turn round and walk on. Just keep going, never giving up. Yeah - that's how I was brought up. That's how I was brought up."

Her last scenes - a solo trek across the Square, and past the Vic - beautifully echo that speech. It's a far cry from the screeching harridan with her battlecry of "Getouttamypub". Barbara Windsor is simply stellar, as the facade drops and the real Peggy comes out: the diamond hard, sometimes cruel, occasionally nasty, loud Duchess of Walford.

In losing Peggy Mitchell, we've lost our nightly audience with Barbara Windsor. Old East End, real East End, and TV royalty.

They just don't make 'em like her no more.

Watch Thursday's episode here
Watch Friday's episode here

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there

lensed

MEN, IN
PICTURES

Introducing the Dream Team: Photographer extraordinaire Tarrice Love, and UK boxer manikin Rob Evans. What more could you ask for?

Tarrice writes, "Not being the ideal showroom size hasn't discouraged Rob or made him feel the need to starve to death and comform to the industries current skinny boy standard - he's opt'd to be the exception..... actual man size. Everyone was telling me 'he's huge' or 'all you really can do with him is underwear stuff.' I set out to prove otherwise."

There's  a great video of Tarrice talking to Rob at Tarrice's blog, and don't forget there's more after the jump...

FIFTEEN

don't
die
before
you've
lived

This is 18-year-old Rio McFarlane. He is the fifteenth teenager to be murdered in London this year.

McFarlane - described as a promising footballer - was shot dead in Peckham, South London, on Monday.

His brother Anthony said, "No one had any reason to shoot him. He was just a good, likeable teenager. The whole family is absolutely devastated. We are missing such a bright, vibrant character, a loving character who has been taken from us. He is irreplaceable."

Rio's murder is the first teen death since 16-year-old Ailton Campos de Oliveira was stabbed to death in July.

In 2009, fourteen teenagers were killed.

An artist must know how to convince others of the truth of his lies

lensed

MEN, IN
PICTURES

SHOOT THE GLASS!

lensed

MEN, IN
PICTURES

You don't know what you've got till it's gone

still

standing

2001-2010

N

ew York shutter-bug Baldwin Lee's work is nothing short of exquisite. Make sure to visit his site for collections on "Black Americans in the South", Katrina, and, of course, the World Trade Center - both pre- and post- September 11.

His pictures of the towers, often glimpsed, half-seen (taken for granted, perhaps...), or forcefully imposing themselves on their unavoidably diminutive surroundings, are truly thought-provoking.

More shots after the jump...

You only tell me you love me when you're drunk

lensed

MEN, IN
PICTURES

Delusions of grandeur

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