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My friend and "We Love Soaps" founder Damon L. Jacobs went out to Columbus Circle recently to find out if people knew that actor James Franco (MILK) was going to be on GENERAL HOSPITAL (starting November 20th).
What resulted is an interesting mix of responses including (sadly) "James who?"
(Photo from soapnet.com/photographer RETNA)
I found this to be a pretty good satire of the Lady Gaga song, Bad Romance... my favorite "I don't want to be French!"... some good stuff there! :)
The always wacky Mike Diamond visited GMHC's recent Fashion Forward event and got some face time with both Tim Gunn and Wendy Williams.
Some folks find Mike's unrelenting style to be a little ... exhausting ... but what I adore about him is his fearlessness to get the interview and then have the balls to cross the line with them - but not in a way that's a "gotcha" (like bringing up some scandal) but in a playful sexual way. Asking Tim Gunn who's the sexiest silver fox, him or Anderson Cooper? Hilarious!!! :)
Now if you're REALLY a Tim Gunn fan and missed his recent appearance on the Craig Ferguson Show introducing Aqualad ("he's like Robin, only gayer, if that's possible") then give a looksee to the second clip - I must admit I don't quite "get" Ferguson's constant dig at the character since he hasn't been even semi popular in oh about 50 years but whatever. I love the show and it's consistently the best late show on tv so I just go with the flow...
Anyway, it's all just the kind of thing that's fun to watch on a sleepy Monday morning following a great fucking vacation in Montreal. As you know I'm in Montreal this weekend to go to Lady Gaga's first concert of her first bit tour. Am having a great time
BTW saw Perez Hilton on the plane yesterday and although I'm not a fan or anything it was tempting to get a picture with him. My own internal "fame monster" clamored for me to do it but I resisted. Is it right to take a picture with someone whose business practice you loathe just to borrow some of their fame for a second? I don't think so. On the other hand, he was flying coach which tells me that even he doesn't think he's that precious - which actually was a point in his favor. Still, remembering what he did to Dustin Lance Black this past summer and how he's postured himself to be a spokesperson for the community, no I'll pass.
As for the Gaga concert at the Bell Center, well, even though the show itself is entertaining (great songs, great costumes - love the Alien headdress and the machine gun hat is nothing short of brilliant - and some cool-nerdy choreography) but it is still in a bit of rough shape and it might be why she's not letting press review the her til after the third show this Sunday in Ottawa...although the Montreal press simply bought a ticket and reviewed it anyway. I dig her and as I've kinda gotten into her like most guys my age have 'gotten into' Madonna, I was just glad to be there. She can sing, she plays the piano, she's clearly got some great ideas and she's got quite a bit of an edge (did I mention the machine gun hat?) Anyway, by the time she makes it to NYC, the show should be flawless.
I will leave you all with this thought though: this Gaga chick has managed to take classic drag and mix it with circuit party music from the 90s and has brought it and sold it to straight women. Seriously I looked up at one point and thought - is this the Red Party or the Imperial Court? Why am I still wearing my shirt? Where is my X? :)
Anyway, this Wizard of Oz video is making the rounds today even though it was posted two and a half years ago.. it answers the question "what if the Wizard of Oz was made today, what would the trailer be like?" It's not quite as brilliant as my all time favorite of this general type of genre, the infamous "Scary Mary" trailer but it's still pretty good.
Have a great Saturday night everyone!
In Raging Stallion's latest blockbuster, newcomer Cole Streets plays Joe Wilder, a 20 something, unemployed guy that lives in SF's Castro neighborhood who, Cole says "is pretty innocent and naive" and "never has any malicious intentions but ends up getting himself into a lot of trouble" In what sounds like a classic Hitchcock 'average guy gets involved in over his head' story, being obsessed by gay porn has both a boyfriend that no one likes and an obsession with his favorite stud, Dario Stefano. There have been a rash of murders that include having sex with victims and then killing them and starts playing amateur sleuth when he sees a homemade video that includes Stefano ... and one of the murder victims. "And, of course, mayhem follows!" Cole laughs.
According to Streets, there ARE some 'disturbing moments' in the movie although he says that "although there are a lot of murders, you don't really see them"
While there will be no doubt a lot of talk about what this trend says about us (I don't think it's anymore disturbing than the uptick in violence on primetime tv shows and mainstream movies) Cole defends the artistic choice saying "I think it is just another way of spicing up porn movies. We have seen so many boring, no storyline movies in the past. This project was taken on to give the viewers something different to enjoy and mix it up a little"
You can get your hands on a copy of Focus/Refocus by going to the Raging Stallion website.
Just a short note this morning as I jump in the shower before breakfast and off to the airport for my trip to Montreal.. tonight my boyfriend and I are seeing Lady Gaga in concert. I'm ridiculously excited for it! I was never one of those fags who went all gaga for Madonna, although I could appreciate her talent, I didnt really see what all the fuss was about. With Gaga, there's some actual talent there and although there's an overabundance of costumes and crap obscuring the music, its clear that the gal can sing her ass off. So, should be fun. Plus, you know, Montreal. Sin City to the north. :)
Today, Raging Stallion releases it's big feature of the year FOCUS/REFOCUS starring Cole Streets and David Taylor. We have a few shots for you over the course of the day today so check back and give 'em a look and if this is a cast that you think you want to beat your meat to, then go to the Raging Stallion website and pick it up.
First up, a shot of David Taylor who told me earlier this week about his ink:
"The left arm represents my more anamilistic and crazy wild child. The Right sleeve represents the inner piece and
spiritual side. They balance me."
And now, a little David- love
It's easy in today's rush around world to forget the things that matter most - the things that last, that linger, that are eternal. I am grateful for my boyfriend of two and a half years, I am thankful for continued health (knock on wood), I am thankful that in January I will have lived in this same apartment for six years. I am thankful that we've had such great shows at Bingo the past few months that we could break our 100k goal months before we thought we would, I am grateful for the tremendous support we've received from Next and Time Out. I am grateful for the opportunity to do this blog every day. I am grateful for the friends that have stuck with me over the years, for those who have found their way back to me after long absences and am grateful that friends that I'm not in contact with now will eventually return to my life.
But aside from all of that, I am most thankful for this photo as it has made me VERY HAPPY the past couple months....
Enjoy your day everyone. I will have some postings over the weekend but it'll be light as I'll be in Montreal with the boyfriend and other friends for the holiday weekend. I hope I'll have some fun stories to share with you all next week!!
From acting honors to best top to Performer of the Year, from XBiz to European porn awards shows to the GayVNs, Ricky has won a couple dozen top honors on his own and has been involved in productions (such as Raging Stallion’s TO THE LAST MAN and GRUNTS) which have racked up another couple dozen honors from the technicals to Best Picture.
Coming from a military background and getting into porn was ‘kind of a road of self discovery and becoming more comfortable with my own sexuality” Sinz says and goes on to say (going into the adult industry) ‘was a blessing, I have met so many good people and developed as a person of it, I have no regrets going down this path.”
In last year’s TO THE LAST MAN, Sinz played an evil rancher set out to destroy his rival, played by Jake Deckard by fucking and then murdering the rivals' ranchhands. It was pretty envelope-pushing stuff for a medium that usually subsists on movies that have, for the most part, aspired to “9 guys, four scenes”, a formula that has worked well in the past but is now becoming irrelevant. In an age where anyone can pick up a camera and make their own, studios are struggling to figure out how to create movies that only a studio can make, on a budget that only an amateur could dream of.
There was a time when ‘story porn’ was all over the place but mostly the studios made these kinds of XXX flicks their Big Picture of the Year as a way of flaunting how close they could approximate the mainstream Hollywood equivalent and of course how well they’d done financially that year. It was a surebet way to win awards from the industry and show off a little.
But over the years, these projects (which one studio head once told me never actually made any more money than the “9 guys, four scenes” porn) became financially impossible to make.
Ironically, one of the studios who never participated in ‘story porn’, Raging Stallion, is now one of the leaders of it. In it’s infancy, ten years ago, Raging Stallion’s formula was pretty simple: hire hot hairy, muscley, tattooed normally sexy men to have sex with each other on a really simple set used over and over again in various movies. Throw in some fetish (ropes, sounding, leather) They built a stable of guys (rotating men in and out as all studios do) who clearly knew their way around these fetishes (and actually owned and used the leather they were wearing in the sex scene), generally sticking to a formula of capturing hot sex and expanding the story part of it a little at a time, which gave the production team more experience and comfort with doing dialogue, characters and story.
With TO THE LAST MAN sweeping all the award shows last year,
the team certainly has had it’s work cut out for them for FOCUS/REFOCUS. Advance word is that it's more brutal than last year's flick in a sort of film noir style. And where does Sinz fit in all of this
He got to sit back a little in this new production and got to be a bartender and do a three way with Steve Cruz and Adam Killian. “It was kind of nice not having such a major role in a major film. It was kind of cool to sit back and watch everyone creating story and putting it all together on screen.”
And about those honors that have been showered on him over the past couple years?
The second best he says is the Raging Stallion Man of the Year ‘because there’s only one of those” but his absolute favorite honor among it all wasn’t one he received, but one he gave; and that was being able to present an award to his friend (porn star) Kent North at the Grabbys. “It was the last time he was ever on a stage before he passed away and I was able to hand him the award and shake his hand, he was such an amazing person and I miss him very much. To be able to have done that is an honor and a memory that I will cherish for a lifetime.”
Sure winning isn’t easy, but knowing what's important in life, well, Ricky certainly makes that look effortless too.
FOCUS/REFOCUS is available starting Thanksgiving weekend at Raging Stallion and check out Ricky’s own website as well.
ONE LIFE TO LIVE's Scott Evans (Oliver Fish) graces the cover of the upcoming issue of INSTINCT mag and here's a little preview .. enjoy! Sexy! As reported yesterday, KISH (Oliver Fish and boyfriend Kyle Lewis) appears this week in special Thanksgiving scenes and throughout December in what the show is teasing around the net will be a hate crimes story involving Kyle's ex-husband to be, Nick (also played by an out actor, Nick Rodriguez).
This issue of INSTINCT also features an essay by Judy Shepard and, in honor of World AIDS Day, how people are living WITH and not dying FROM HIV/AIDS.
More at Instinct Magazine
