this is fyf

Mister Andre Springer is missing Whitney Houston a little more than you.

Poor thing can't even cook dinner.

R.I.P. Frank Kameny

Fireworks on 9/11...

...make as much sense as clergy at the memorial service:

"Is that an explosion?"

"No, it's a fireworks display the night before 9/11 with the City on high alert due to a "credible threat of terrorism"."

--

"Is that an Imam preaching hate and bigotry?"

"No, it's a Pastor."

--

The fireworks did happen - the night before - at least in my little corner of Brooklyn, but I'm glad the city stood firm against the demands of demagogues looking for a stage.

FYF After Dark: Keeping tabs

Let's take a walk down memory lane?

Have you been a New Yorker long enough to remember these two? They were dancers at The Cuckoo Club at Hiro Ballroom, as well as assorted other nightspots that attracted a clientele who enjoyed the appeal of a ripped, ready and "exotic" go-go boy show.

Apparently there's a particular gentleman who has amassed a cabal of dancers who fit just that bill, and - as a result - has cornered the market for bars and clubs providing this type entertainment to a tip-happy audience! There are moments I am overcome with curiousity as to how he does it and with the desire to change places with him.

When I return to my senses, I am often surprised - even though I shouldn't be - that many of his troupe have done videos and photo shoots far more intimate and revealing than any show they put on atop a bar.

Perhaps you are more surprised that I have managed, or - more likely - cared enough to search these instances, like the one above (and the full shot after the jump, obviously NSFW), out.

"Thank You for Being a Friend", Andrew Gold, 1986

R.I.P. Andrew Gold, 1952 - 2011

Remember Cameo?

I mean...this is EVERYTHING!?

Last night after I finally finished watching the RPDR Finale, I searched for Ru's Champion to see if the video had already been posted. For some reason, I ran across - or it was presented to me as "like" Rupaul? - Cameo and got sucked in to the genius/randomness/absurdity-so-absurdly-good that are their videos and looks. I mean, who ARE these people?! The looks are so MUCH! Right?

Don't forget Word Up, either.

It's not just VD that's catchy in this PSA against its spread.

I enjoy reviewing old PSAs like the one above both for their well-intentioned purpose and for the often inadvertently hilarious resulting clip. This one's intended effect is a bit unclear, but what it did do was get the chorus, "VD is for everybody" stuck in a young girl's head, the innocent recitation of which led to a somewhat harsh reprimand from her mother.

What led me to the VD PSA was a piece on NYMag.com about the following PSA, and, in light of it's subject matter, I raise the question, why don't we see PSAs like it about litter anymore? New Yorkers today are equally as liable to litter as blatantly as the fellow in the clip, so why is there no longer a campaign against it? I don't watch TV, so there may still PSAs running that I'm just not aware of, but...if not, why not?

 

Misty, water-colored memories...

Well...pixelated, at any rate.

Via

May nostalgia incite revolt; inspire homage and evolution.

Blank City Official Trailer from Celine Danhier on Vimeo.

Blank City explores the No Wave film movement and a particular moment in NYC's history that most agree was pretty damn great. It opens April 6th at IFC Center.

Just a reminder: Love IS the message.

It's Valentine's Day today and that's - traditionally - the whole point. Love. Particularly romantic love. Crass commercialism be damned, today should be a day for spreading it, showing it, sharing it, expressing it, finding it, feeling it...

Heed this song as the day's theme, then: "Love Is The Message" by MFSB. Like FYF's multiple choice acronym, MFSB is said to stand for either "Mother, Father, Sister, Brother" or "Mother-fuckin-son-of-a-bitch" and whether your day presents you with a sense of familial love (as represented by the first) or a tense, even frustrating love that makes you gnash your teeth at times (but then scream in ecstasy others?), we hope you feel loved.

Note: Love is the Message is a song strongly associated with "The Sound of Philly" (another song by this group is titled that, in fact.), and has an instrumental version:

as well one with a vocal track sung by "The Three Degrees". Of course, being it was from Philly, NYC had to make it their own, so there's a NYC Remix (above). There are many, many other reworkings but the last one I want to mention is likely one of the more familiar to you if you've ever been to Body & Soul or 718 Sessions (or any club night like those) as it's Danny Krivit's re-edit:

And with that, you (and I) know a bit more about the history of dance music here in NYC.

Respect...and love it, won't you?

R.I.P. Jack LaLanne

 

Jack LaLanne died yesterday at 96.  The man was an early television fitness guru, one of the first to fully franchise out with multiple fitness items branded with his own name.  Some may remember that Bally's gyms used to be Jack LaLanne's.  (I was a member!)  Read more at Wikipedia.

In the United States of America, today is Veterans Day.

Veterans Day is celebrated as Armistice Day or Armed Forces Day in other parts of the world, but here, the date both commemorates the day the Armistice that ended World War 1 was signed as well as honors the veterans of all wars the U.S. has fought since.  Back on the first Armistice Day, war was a more formal, organized affair with many "civilities", as opposed to the hostilities, which were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Very tidy! Perhaps the signers put a lot of stock in numerology or something? Dunno, but it certainly seems too perfect NOT to be portentous.

Back to the veterans part of Veterans Day...just FYF -- according to Wikipedia, there are still three surviving World War 1 veterans (two British and one American); all 109 years of age this year.

There'll be a parade on Fifth Avenue today - and in cities across the Country - in honor of all American veterans, of which there are approximately 24.9 million. Though only three World War 1 veterans remain living and, therefore,  add just three to the total number of surviving American veterans cited above, in researching their number, I was reminded (and astounded anew) that 65 million+ military personnel were involved in World War 1. Also astounding (and horrifying): 9 million+ of those were killed in the course of the war.

When I realized today was Veterans Day, my mind flashed back to a thought I had a few days ago when I noticed a homeless man with a sign that read "Homeless Vet. Please help". I had thought about how it seemed nearly any homeless person I saw with a sign was - according to the sign - a homeless vet. At the time, I pondered the possible ramifications of this observation. Was it being a vet that made someone more likely to be homeless? Or was a person who was more likely to become homeless also more likely to be a vet?

There are a number of assumptions I'm making in simply voicing those questions (e.g. - that homelessness is something to which one can have a "proclivity"; that the armed forces may attract those with proclivities to homelessness, etc.), but it all begs the question: Are we - once again - being utter hypocrites when it comes to our governmental policies towards, and treatment of, the men and women who we send into harm's way to "protect" us (the quotations are merely meant to indicate what they're doing and who they're protecting is somewhat open to interpretation.)? Additionally, are we taking full responsibility for how battle affects an individual psychologically as well as physiologically?

I am not able to verify or even specify what the above photo reflects; i.e. - Where is this taken? Are the number of suicides specific to soldiers in Iraq? Or are they the number of suicides committed by U.S. soldiers (and maybe veterans?) worldwide? Still, the numbers seem to highlight an underlying (now explicit) theme today: that, while soldiers may be well-trained for combat, they struggle with life between conflicts, or after having returned from duty.

Regardless of whether there are better ways to a) defend our nation and b) assist our returning soldiers, today is about honoring those who offered their lives and possibly their sanity/ability to live in society to protect our way of life. Is/was it worth it? Debatable, certainly, but...perhaps in reflecting today (and on days like it) on what a society worth this magnitude of sacrifice would look like, each of us can take actions that will, eventually, shape our nation into something that is -- without question! -- worth it.

Lyricism - "As", Stevie Wonder, 1976

Just a reminder (...of genius. ...of this truth.)

It's a lot, but until you've heard it pumped on a dance floor...?!

[Stevie] As around the sun the earth knows she's revolving
And the rosebuds know to bloom in early May
Just as hate knows love's the cure
You can rest your mind assured
That I'll be loving you always

As now can't reveal the mystery of tomorrow
But in passing we'll grow older every day
Just as all is born is new
Do know what I say is true
That I'll be loving you always

[Chorus] Until the rainbow burns the stars out in the sky---[Stevie] ALWAYS
Until the ocean covers every mountain high---ALWAYS
Until the dolphin flies and parrots live at sea---ALWAYS
Until we dream of life and life becomes a dream

[Stevie] Did you know that true love asks for nothing
Her acceptance is the way we pay
Did you know that life has given love a guarantee
To last through forever and another day

Just as time knew to move on since the beginning
And the seasons know exactly when to change
Just as kindness knows no shame
Know through all your joy and pain
That I'll be loving you always

As today I know I'm living but tomorrow
Could make me the past but that I mustn't fear
For I'll know deep in my mind
The love of me I've left behind
Cause I'll be loving you always

[Chorus] Until the day is night and night becomes the day---[Stevie] ALWAYS
Until the trees and seas just up and fly away---ALWAYS
Until the day that 8x8x8 is 4---ALWAYS
Until the day that is the day that are no more
[Stevie] Did you know that you're loved by somebody?
Until the day the earth starts turning right to left---ALWAYS
Until the earth just for the sun denies itself
[Stevie] I'll be loving you forever

Civilization Progress Report: Don't pluck the forbidden rose! & other morality tales

Hello, world! How is everyone? Hello? Is this thing on? No? HOW' S THAT THEN? TOO LOUD? (Okay, Rod, I'll stop.) Anyway follow me down into this week's rabbit hole of kaleidoscopic queerent events! And what a kaleidoscopic week it was. 'Twas the week when we learned that should we wear a color popularized by such foods as aubergines and plums, we could cancel out the altogether-ooky feelings that the Dementors of our youth wrought on us. It was also the week when our fearless leader made us groan again and so...we sought reprieve in foreign rip-offs of animated Disney classics dating back to last century. Grab your CPR dummies and let's get crackin'!

• THE SEX TRADE The domain Sex.com has sold for $13 million. [BBC]

• The Obama Administration has decided a good thing to do would be to block the repeal of DADT. [HuffPo]

• Or not! DADT confusion mounts! [NYT]

God hates the Qur'an for being a fag day.

No further comment necessary really.  

Video is post-jump.  (Via Sullivan)

Aptly named, the "Tea Party" movement allows its "leaders" to have their cake and eat it, too.

As reported here previously, Sarah Plain's (yes I know how it's spelled) latest demagoguery aims to use a Muslim group's application for a permit to build an Islamic community center and mosque near (about two blocks from? maybe four...) Ground Zero to improve her standing as potential presidential candidate and bolster her popularity with the burgeoning (and bumpkin?) Tea Party movement.

At the same time, Republican politicians (arguably many with Tea Party sympathies, either ideologically, or out of a pragmatic desire to keep their office.) in the House voted down a bill to pay for the health care of those who suffer ill-health and potentially life-threatening medical conditions as a result of their exposure to asbestos and other harmful substances in the air at and around Ground Zero after the attack on the World Trade Center.

"Cart before the horse", "Can't see the forest for the trees" and all that, but mostly - wow, don't your words ring hollow Sarah Plain and (of all entities??) the American Defamation League!?!?

From what I understand, their collective reasoning for decrying the Muslim center is they feel it would be insensitive to the families of 9/11 victims having a mosque so close to the site of an attack by Muslim terrorists. Specious as this reasoning is (the mosque and its adherents almost certainly didn't have anything to do with the attack, despite sharing - ostensibly in name only - a common faith.), insensitivity/a lack of compassion for the victims is certainly what the Republicans and their bastard children, the Tea Partiers, are showing by voting not to take care of those victims who are still alive?!

Does this make ANY sense to anyone reading this??

The comment in the screenshot above is on a Gawker article regarding the Islamic center's announcement that it will include a memorial in its building for the victims of 9/11 and nearly perfectly captures my sentiments on the matter...not to mention sets visions of hot Puerto Rican/Italian cops dancing through my head.

A man that was in my nightmares as a child died yesterday.

To be clear, I wasn't afraid of Dan Resin, the Ty-D-Bowl Man. I was afraid for him.  Yes, god complexes start early, and I wanted to rescue him.  And to borrow those exquisite white shoes.  Now I never will.

Talking Points Memo on the World Trade Mosque misspelling (possibly intentional): Sarah Plain. Memo content? Spot-on.

 

I am in as much agreement with this Talking Points Memo on the potential siting of a mosque near the World Trade Center site as I can be. 

"Following her logic (no small feat, I might add), do I now have the right to protest the construction of a new office building in Anchorage because it may house the offices of an oil company and might insult the people who suffered from the BP oil spill?"

Touche! "Doesn't it stab you in the heart" indeed!?

I'm usually all about empathy and am generally the last one to try and attribute anything but the best of intentions to people, but - for a while now - I'm convinced the vast majority of the American people have completely lost it. We Americans have taken leave of our senses (No, not CENSUS...though the Becks and the Bachmann's would have you do that as well.) and are fighting windmills instead of facing the reality of a shrinking world that's nearly tapped out when it comes to natural fuel resources and - as a result - is not-so-slowly going all to hell. THIS reality, to me, IS important.  Your bass-ackward way of thinking; your "Let me channel Middle America's fear of a black planet/aliens/anyone who doesn't look like me and talk like me" hoaky "I feel for you so you'll vote for me" tactics and shameless posturing over a bullshit issue that will likely NEVER EVER affect you in even the SLIGHTEST of ways way the fuck out there in Alaska (WHERE YOU SHOULD STAY) except for the one time you come and stand in front of it for the cameras and news crews while on the campaign trail...you, your opinion and your made-up issue are NOT important!

YOU and the people who obfuscate REAL issues with bullshit like you spew are the reason Congress cannot pass even a toothless clean energy bill.

You should be ashamed.

Final thought: Those of us who actually lived through a terrorist attack aren't fooling ourselves thinking we can protect ourselves from further attack by making everyone Christian, or speak English, or look like us.  

We were attacked because we uphold liberty and believe in freedoms of speech and of religion. By restricting those, we're - in essence - making all those deaths in the World Trade attack for naught. How's THAT for stabbing you in the heart, Ms. Plain?

Tobias Wong, Witty Conceptual Artist, East Villager: 1974-2010

 

Gold Pills to gild your poop. Best statement on over-consumption ever?

Many folks bemoan the gentrification of the East Village as having pushed the gritty, edgy, brilliant, artist-types out in favor of trust-fund babies and regular contributors to 401Ks. Until recently, though, the East Village was home to Tobias Wong - a 35 year-old conceptual artist and designer whose remarkable body of work is a reminder that controversial, thought-provoking, "smart" art is still created in the borough of Manhattan. 

Tobi died this past weekend. He was best known for provocative pieces like his gold-plated "Coke Spoon" series, one a McDonald’s coffee stirrer and the other a Bic pen cap. Like the coke spoons, perhaps, much of the rest of his work sarcastically "tweaked the nose" of modern luxury consumers; a well-trodden path for artists to be sure, but Tobi's works were sublime. You can judge for yourself here and here. 

Besides all this, I will miss Tobi because I was lucky enough to know him. We’d sneak cigarettes in the back of The Hose on a blustery winter night. He bought me birthday drinks at Nowhere just this past spring. He had a sly, mischievous smile and - as you might expect - a winning sense of humor. My heart goes out to Tim, his wonderful boyfriend, as well as to Tobi’s family in Vancouver. We lost a fascinating and talented artist ostensibly too soon - but his legacy lies in the hope that greatness still happens - and lives - Downtown.

Photo via The Colorful Life.

David Ozanich's is a GLAAD-award winning co-author of the "Likely Story" series of teen-girl books, and has also written for Lonely Planet and other publications/outlets.