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Saturday 28 February 2015
Friday 27 February 2015
Fagburn: Like A Motorway
Sorry, it's been a bit dull on Fagburn this week.
Many thanks to Justine and Matt for doing lots of grown-up stuff in my new flat today, while I just sat and kicked my legs like Pollyanna. x
PS Me, pictured recently, filing some books. Will the paparazzi ever leave me alone???
Weekend quiz time... who is the gayest member of Kraftwerk?
Many thanks to Justine and Matt for doing lots of grown-up stuff in my new flat today, while I just sat and kicked my legs like Pollyanna. x
PS Me, pictured recently, filing some books. Will the paparazzi ever leave me alone???
Weekend quiz time... who is the gayest member of Kraftwerk?
Thursday 26 February 2015
William Hague: LOL
Losing the 2001 election; forced to issue statement denying he is gay in 2010; losing a Commons vote on military intervention in Syria in 2013.
Thought For The Day: Edward Snowden
"History shows that the righting of historical wrongs is often born from acts of unrepentant criminality. Slavery. The protection of persecuted Jews. But even on less extremist topics, we can find similar examples. How about the prohibition of alcohol? Gay marriage? Marijuana?
"Where would we be today if the government, enjoying powers of perfect surveillance and enforcement, had — entirely within the law — rounded up, imprisoned, and shamed all of these lawbreakers?"
Wednesday 25 February 2015
Daniel Handler: A Fortunate Event
From a Guardian livechat.
Here it isssssssssss - featuring Daniel on xylophone or something.
 |
| Arguably, the greatest record ever made. |
Noam Chomsky: Philosopher And Political Scientist, Apparently
Joins us live from Boston!
Fuck Nato.
PS No news today, so bum off. x
Fuck Nato.
PS No news today, so bum off. x
Obituary Of The Day: Lee Israel
Lee Israel, who has died aged 75, was a writer who enjoyed modest success with biographies of the American actress Tallulah Bankhead and the gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen; but after falling on hard times she embarked on a new career as a literary forger, churning out letters purportedly written by such cultural eminences as Noël Coward, Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman, and selling them to collectors and dealers.
At the time she began her criminal spree in 1990, she was drinking too much, her cat was ill and she needed money. “It happened incrementally,” she told an interviewer later. “I needed the dough. I was in a lot of trouble... I went to the library and was given a bunch of letters which I should not have been given. I needed to come up with 40 bucks to get my kitty’s, Doris’s, tests back. And I took a couple of Fanny Brice letters, slipped them in my sneakers, and sold them to a place called Argosy, on the East Side of New York City... Some of the autograph dealers told me that they would pay more for better content. So, there was a big white space at the bottom of a letter after, 'yours truly, Fanny Brice’. I got an old typewriter and I wrote a couple of hot sentences that improved the letter and elevated the price." ...
At the time she began her criminal spree in 1990, she was drinking too much, her cat was ill and she needed money. “It happened incrementally,” she told an interviewer later. “I needed the dough. I was in a lot of trouble... I went to the library and was given a bunch of letters which I should not have been given. I needed to come up with 40 bucks to get my kitty’s, Doris’s, tests back. And I took a couple of Fanny Brice letters, slipped them in my sneakers, and sold them to a place called Argosy, on the East Side of New York City... Some of the autograph dealers told me that they would pay more for better content. So, there was a big white space at the bottom of a letter after, 'yours truly, Fanny Brice’. I got an old typewriter and I wrote a couple of hot sentences that improved the letter and elevated the price." ...
Wow, just wow.
Tuesday 24 February 2015
Peter Tatchell: Bermondsey Revisited
Well, this is most odd.
It appears Peter Tatchell has got Pink News to re-publish an article by him they published two years ago.
The first was to mark the 30th anniversary of the Bermondsey by-election.
But can anyone recall when someone has marked anything's 32nd anniversary?
Interesting Saint Peter is milking this yet again right now.
Going for the sympathy vote, Pete?
Oh, the stories I could tell...
PS This made it into the hapless Independent. Who neglect to point out our brave, valiant gay rights warrior went back in the closet during the by-election campaign. Gay pride!
Gay Star News: Shocking Pink Self-Awareness Bypass
Queers Against Injustice claimed responsibility for a similar vandal attack on a GAYTM last week.
The group accused ANZ of commercializing [sic] LGBTI rights after the bank covered four ATMs with rhinestones and renamed them GAYTMs.
'Pinkwashing: describes the way that institutions co-opt LGBT struggles to distract from and disguise unethical behaviour,' posters left at the banks read...
One of at least ten undeclared advertorial puff pieces Gay Star News have run about Barclays.
I have asked GSN editor Tris Reid Smith how much they were paid for each of these, but he hasn't got back to me yet.
Perhaps he was out of the office today schmoozing another potential corporate pimp?
I have asked GSN editor Tris Reid Smith how much they were paid for each of these, but he hasn't got back to me yet.
Perhaps he was out of the office today schmoozing another potential corporate pimp?
Update...
I heard you had been ill – if so I hope you are feeling better.
We have done commercial work with Barclays but by no means everything we have done about them has been paid for. We don't normally discuss the figures involved.
Happy to talk about this further to give you a proper, full response but I don't think I have your number. My contact details are below.
Thanks,
Tris
PS Tristram would not confirm they got paid £2,000 a pop.
Google: Blogger Off
The new rules require any blog with “sexually explicit or graphic nude images or video” to take them down by 23 March, or the blog will be made private by Google. A private blog can only be seen by the owner or admins of the blog, and people who the owner has shared the blog with.
Google promises that the majority of users of the service, which Google acquired from Twitter co-founder Evan Williams’ Pyra Labs in 2003, won’t see any change from the new rules. But many users are concerned that the new rules represent a huge about-turn from Google’s previously stated support of explicit material on its platform.
The company’s previous policy said: “We do allow adult content on Blogger, including images or videos that contain nudity or sexual activity … All blogs marked as ‘adult’ will be placed behind an ‘adult content’ warning interstitial.” Its only exceptions were to ban illegal explicit content, explicit images shared without the subject’s consent (commonly known as “revenge porn”) and making money on adult content...
Oh for buttfuck's sake!
Do Google really expect me to go back and check through nearly five years worth of posts?
Do Google really expect me to go back and check through nearly five years worth of posts?
I'm pretty sure the only 'sexually explicit or graphic nude image' I've ever published was this one of Hunx sporting an erection.
I've now doctored it in haste to save the world's morals, and in case any convent schoolgirls stumble across my humble blog.
If Google can find any more, please let me know.
Google say they'll still allow some forms of nudity “if the content offers a substantial public benefit, for example in artistic, educational, documentary, or scientific contexts.”
I think this covers my (metaphorical) arse.
Update: Google appear to have reversed on this and allowed nuddy pics.
Update: Google appear to have reversed on this and allowed nuddy pics.
Photography: Coming Of Age
National Treasures is at Muse Studio, Sydney until 8 March 2015.
Tweet Of The Day: Rob Delaney
Fuck off. RT @NYTFashion: Sam Smith attended his first fashion show. Guess which one it was. http://t.co/sFUnlrLGG3 pic.twitter.com/dX5JGgpSwn
— rob delaney (@robdelaney) February 24, 2015
And the runner-up...
i can't get in G-A-Y late on a Monday night. #lowpoint
— FKA twigs (@FKAtwigs) February 24, 2015
Well done Jeremy!
You'll be gagging for her to play G-A-Y when you finally find out who she is.
Grace Dent: She Loves The Gays
I’d go as far as to say you shouldn’t be allowed back into the country ever, when surely there are dozens of other bloodier, more depressing places that suit your lifestyle choice better. However, I’ve asked my liberal friends what we should do and they all wring their hands and say after some mumbling, “Nothing.” So give me a call when you’re bored with all the stoning, crucifying and beheading. I’ll meet you at Heathrow Arrivals with your teddy.
She loves the gays, she loves the gays, nobody can believe how much she loves the gays.
But hates Muslims.
The new Julie Burchill?
The new Julie Burchill?
Cliff Richard: Unnecessary Distress
The previously unpublished investigation says the deal should never have been done.
Senior officials at South Yorkshire Police are branded incompetent and the BBC dishonest in its explanation of how it found out about the raid.
As police swooped on Sir Cliff’s £3.5million home in Berkshire last August over a sex assault allegation from 1985 images of the raid were beamed round the world from a camera filming from a helicopter.
Now a damning report by independent investigator and former chief constable Andy Trotter has concluded that police were wrong to confirm details of the investigation to the BBC.
The report also found Sir Cliff’s privacy had been breached by effectively confirming his identity as a suspect.
Mr Trotter says: “People have seen a search of Sir Cliff Richard’s apartment unfold on television with details of a serious allegation put into the public domain prior to him being interviewed by the police.
“The search and the nature of the allegation... certainly interfered with his privacy and may well have caused unnecessary distress.”
Sir Cliff, 74, has not been arrested or charged and has branded the historic allegations against him as “completely false” ...
I know Beeb-bashing is a favourite pastime of certain newspapers, but this was a truly disgusting, shameful episode - fuelled in part by some 60 years of schoolboy sniggers about Sir Cliff's sexuality.
Gotcha?
Gotcha?
Ivan Massow: Still Fucking Terrible
“So we were expected to join the left side, even though we might be quite entrepreneurial and want to own our own houses and believe in small government, and all the things I personally – and especially gay men – tend to be.
“Gay males don’t realise it, but when you start to dissemble, and ask them the questions that are multiple choice, they’re Tory. But you were obliged to stand on the left and throw rocks at the right. Almost as if they enjoyed it. It was like a class hatred thing and I didn’t see that as being productive."
Gay Tory millionaire shitbag, Ivan Massow, interviewed in the digital edition of Attitude.
One word, Ivan... bollocks.
Monday 23 February 2015
Guy Burgess: Stranger In Moscow
An interview recorded with Soviet spy Guy Burgess in Moscow in 1959 and lost for over 50 years has been discovered.
Recorded by Canada's CBC it is believed to be the only filmed interview with Burgess.
The notorious old poove appears to be very, very drunk.
More footage can be viewed on the BBC News website - a full report will be shown on Newsnight this evening. [Edit: 10.45 in here. LOL intro by Evan Davis; 'He was gay before it was allowed...']
PS Here's Benedict Cumberbatch as Burgess in The Turning Point. 1982 Newsnight feature on the opening of Another Country, with Rupert Everett as 'Guy Bennett'. Thought Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad would be on YouTube, but sadly no... [Edit: A devoted reader has pointed out it's on something called Vimto x].
Recorded by Canada's CBC it is believed to be the only filmed interview with Burgess.
The notorious old poove appears to be very, very drunk.
More footage can be viewed on the BBC News website - a full report will be shown on Newsnight this evening. [Edit: 10.45 in here. LOL intro by Evan Davis; 'He was gay before it was allowed...']
PS Here's Benedict Cumberbatch as Burgess in The Turning Point. 1982 Newsnight feature on the opening of Another Country, with Rupert Everett as 'Guy Bennett'. Thought Alan Bennett's An Englishman Abroad would be on YouTube, but sadly no... [Edit: A devoted reader has pointed out it's on something called Vimto x].
Penguin 80: Little Black Classics
Grayson Perry: Half Cat, Half Penis
Tickets are £160 - money raised will go towards paying Lisa Power's salary.
Oscars: No Moore
[Graham Moore shared] with the millions of telecast viewers that at the age of 16, he tried to kill himself “because I felt weird, and I felt different, and I felt that I did not belong. And now I’m standing here, and I would like this moment to be for that kid out there who feels she’s weird or she’s different or she doesn’t fit in anywhere. Yes, you do. … Stay different, and then when it’s your turn, and you’re standing on this stage, please pass the message to the next person that comes along.”
I wish that Moore had drawn a clearer line between his comments about Turing—a man who was persecuted and prosecuted for his homosexuality—and his “it gets better” message to teens who are merely weird and different. For one thing, overemphasizing the connection between queer teens and suicide can be dangerous. But it’s also important to note that being gay simply isn’t the same as being a “geek.” Moore may see them as comparable (and, though he has identified himself as straight, his affect may have opened him up to homophobic bullying), but the truth of the matter is that the social force behind anti-gay prejudice is far stronger and more pernicious than the animus against social outcasts. Moore’s heart was surely in the right place, but I wish he hadn't conflated these identities.
I wish that Moore had drawn a clearer line between his comments about Turing—a man who was persecuted and prosecuted for his homosexuality—and his “it gets better” message to teens who are merely weird and different. For one thing, overemphasizing the connection between queer teens and suicide can be dangerous. But it’s also important to note that being gay simply isn’t the same as being a “geek.” Moore may see them as comparable (and, though he has identified himself as straight, his affect may have opened him up to homophobic bullying), but the truth of the matter is that the social force behind anti-gay prejudice is far stronger and more pernicious than the animus against social outcasts. Moore’s heart was surely in the right place, but I wish he hadn't conflated these identities.
June Thomas, Slate.
Well said.
Can't see why some people are gushing over this boo hoo squish squish patronising gay death cult guff.
Update: Though he appears to be absolutely screaming, Graham Moore has reiterated to BuzzFeed News that he is not gay. Deffo.
Update2: Oops! - thanks to Nick. x
Update: Though he appears to be absolutely screaming, Graham Moore has reiterated to BuzzFeed News that he is not gay. Deffo.
Update2: Oops! - thanks to Nick. x
Update3: More from Slate's J Bryan Lowder, Is It “Weird” to Be Gay? What Graham Moore’s Speech Really Means.
Sunday 22 February 2015
Tom Daley: National Champion
Well done Tom!
Below we see him celebrating with his boyfriend, Dustin Lance Black (40).
The Imitation Game: Imitations Of Life
First of all, the time period we’re all focusing on, he didn’t have one. He described it in his own words as a “sexual desert” in a letter. The whole thing is his relationship with Christopher [Turing’s male crush seen in flashbacks in grade school], about unfulfilled love.
But Turing did have relationships with men.
He had people he had sex with, yes — especially in the time after the war, when he’s living in Manchester. The break-in that happens in the film is a male lover, which is discussed. It was actually someone he paid to have sex with. It was more of a hustler.
But we never see Turing in a relationship with an adult man. Don’t you think that would have enriched the character?
Not really. The whole movie, the way it’s structured, we don’t know anything about this man. The whole investigation starts because he’s hiding something, but he’s not hiding what we think. It can’t start off with him having sex. It was not because we were afraid it would offend anybody. If I did the structure and had this thing about a straight character, I would never have a sex scene to prove that he’s heterosexual. If I have a gay character in a movie, I need to have a sex scene in it — just to prove that he’s gay? I’m not shying away from it. His whole relationship, how he falls in love and the importance of him being a gay man, was all about secrecy.
Some have criticized the movie for not including that.
During his time, the relationship that was important was the relationship with Joan Clarke [played by Keira Knightley]. They were engaged for six months. It’s all about a lost love. He didn’t have a male companion. He had some random people he had sex with. He also had, this was funny, he went to Norway to have sex in a gay sauna, a secret club. He had some sexual partners, but it was few and far between. The only reason to have a sex scene in the film would be to satisfy critics who feels that every gay character needs to have a gay sex scene....
From an Oscars night interview in Variety with The Imitation Game director, Morten Tyldum.
What a funny little man.
No, of course you don't need a gay sex scene just cause a character's gay.
The point is why Turing's homosexuality - something instrumental, not incidental to his story - was so downplayed.
No, of course you don't need a gay sex scene just cause a character's gay.
The point is why Turing's homosexuality - something instrumental, not incidental to his story - was so downplayed.
Fagburn's Oscars wishlist - anyone but Cummerbund.
Pink Pound: Meet Pink Paint
ANZ gave an Aukland ATM a glittering sequined makeover as a "GAYTM" but by Friday someone had smothered it in pink paint, which bank describing it "as pretty sad".
It was labelled a homophobic attack, coming just before the Auckland Pride Festival.
But in an anonymous online post, a group calling themselves "Queers Against Injustice" claimed credit for the "pink-washing".
They claim the bank had "co-opted" gay symbolism for commercial purposes, using them to obscure their business practices and treatment of workers.
"It is disheartening that the representation of our symbolic pinkwashing of the GAYTM has been manipulated into an act of hatred and complicity. This misrepresentation reinforces the image of tolerance that ANZ has spent a lot of money marketing to us."
Hahaha - excellent work.
Queers Against Injustice Political Statement Regarding 'Vandalism' Of GAYTM can be read here.
Queers Against Injustice Political Statement Regarding 'Vandalism' Of GAYTM can be read here.
Thought For The Day: Al Porter
Irish comic, Al Porter, interviewed in The Sunday Times.
Dan Osborne: Man
I am sure however that Dan will clear all this up when he is asked about it at his next Naked Issue photoshoot for Attitude.
Watch Me Date: I Can't Watch!
 |
| Alex! |
This week, it’s gays! Oh, thank goodness. These are no ordinary gays, though – they’re intellectual and all politicky or something. Can we not just have two massive stereotypes with frosted tips and vest tops? Just once? These people do exist.
Watch the video – have some strong black coffee handy – before we unnecessarily dissect absolutely everything they have to say...
The ever-amusing Guyliner strikes again.
 |
| David! |
Kenneth Williams: Happy Birthday Kenny!
Came the reply...
'Tell me something I don't know.'
x
• The Unforgettable Kenneth Williams, ITV1, 12.40pm.
Update: TUKW has not been stored on ITVplayer for some reason, but you can watch it on YouTube here. A great little doc on the magnificent Kenneth's joy and pain. See also Stop Messin' About.
Fagburn's on a bit of a Kenneth Williams trip this year, reading him and about him rescued me. x
PS See also Kenneth Williams: Reputations. On the tortured queen and auto-didact, 'in search of his father....'
Peter Tatchell: Twilight Of The Vicious Narcissus
This was intriguing. The idea of fanatical trans people (or sex workers) vowing murder was new to me, and I wanted to find the evidence. So I spent a few hours searching on Twitter for Tweets containing Peter’s name plus any of a thesaurus of threats (“murder,” “kill,” “beat,” “stab,” etc.); I also searched for a variety of Anglo-Saxon terms of abuse.
Well: that “Twitter mob” was no mob. So far as I see, Peter got exactly one Tweet that contained threatening language; it’s the one he’s cited and retweeted everywhere...
Scott Long, A Paper Bird.
The general consensus is that Saint Peter has now finally and completely lost the fucking plot.
Mr Vain has become a joke and an embarrassment to the gay left, and, may Fagburn humbly suggest, it's probably best to retire forthwith.
People are bored and angry with you reducing gay politics to your wonderful self for over 20 years.
If you really care about a progressive gay movement, step aside.
People are bored and angry with you reducing gay politics to your wonderful self for over 20 years.
If you really care about a progressive gay movement, step aside.
Identity politics created army of vicious, narcissistic cowards http://t.co/pSfXRdKCxj I disagree with some of the language & arguments
— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) February 20, 2015
Irony overload! Saturday 21 February 2015
London Gay Scene: Closing Time?
“It’s important to have a designated area – it’s about being validated and told you’re OK, and it’s about a community feel. You can end up talking to a gay man in his 60s and learn so much about gay history and culture. It’s like your nan passing on wisdom. We take advantage of the fact we can walk around and be gay, but too often we don’t know our history. Knowing your history, knowing your movement, gives you power.”
Travon Steadman, a 20 year-old student and Black Cap regular.
Quoted in yet another article in the straight press about how the gay scene - usually with specific reference to Soho - is dying.
And straight bars are thriving?
And straight bars are thriving?
World Press Photo Of The Year Award: Russia BOO!
The photo by Danish Photographer Mads Nissen, beat nearly 100,000 other entries from press photographers and photojournalists worldwide.
Speaking to BBC World News, Lars Boering, the managing director of World Press Photo, said that the picture had been chosen because it highlighted "an important issue for the whole world."
Words fail me.
So thank fuck there's a photo.
So thank fuck there's a photo.
There are still a few more stories to write about, but they need me to not be so knackered I have trouble remembering my name, and have started to hallucinate.
x
Queerty: Readers Sound Off On Why Gay Is Great
Can you imagine the shitty schlock of dull naff crap if the gaytards at Gay Star News did it?
Michael Mason: 1947-2015
As the product of a leading public school and Oxford, Michael Mason was not the first upper-middle-class man to find that his sexual preferences tended towards his own sex. But whereas most contemporaries discreetly pursued their predilections behind a respectable facade, Mason was baffled that there might be anything to be ashamed of. He took delight in declaring his club as the Sadie Maisie, whose dress code was not jacket-and-tie, but denim, leather or rubber...
From the Daily Telegraph obituary by Simon Edge.
The beginning of a fitting tribute to a man who was part of the Gay Liberation Front, news editor on Gay News, and went on to publish Capital Gay, a weekly London newspaper that worked on the assumption its readers had hearts and brains.
Here are some similarly fulsome tributes paid by the gay media of today...
I jest, of course.
Michael Mason, missed in so many ways.
x
Gay Inc: How Much Do LGBT Organisation Leaders Make?
Food & Friends prepare and deliver meals to people with HIV/Aids and other life-threatening illnesses. It's run by thousands of volunteers.
Math/s isn't Fagburn's strong point, but even half of $434,000 would sure feed a lot of people.
Nice work if you can get it, Craig.
Australian Dads Read: I Think I'm A Poof
Three Aussie men on their love for their gay sons.
No apologies, I cry like a fountain every time I watch this.
This adorable video will break your heart etc etc.
No apologies, I cry like a fountain every time I watch this.
This adorable video will break your heart etc etc.
Take Me Out: What Thrilling Times We Live In
The telly host is hoping that ITV commission a same-sex series of the hit dating show.
Speaking on tomorrow night’s episode of The Jonathan Ross Show, he said: “I have asked about a gay version. We have done an OAP special and a celebrity special.' ...
Gay Marriage: Til Death Us Do Meet
Mikhail Gallatinov, 40, is getting hitched to former “gay basher” Marc Goodwin, 31.
It was reported last night that they are going to hold the ceremony at Full Sutton Prison, East Yorks, next month.
Ministry of Justice chiefs said it will not be funded by taxpayers and the couple will not share a cell afterwards.
Goodwin was caged for a minimum of 18 years in 2007 for the murder of Malcolm Benfold, 57, on Blackpool promenade.
He led a gang which roamed the Lancashire seaside resort searching for homosexuals to beat up.
Gallatinov was jailed for a minimum of 20 years in 1997 for throttling Adrian Kaminsky, 28, in Manchester.
The judge called the murder “a cold-blooded, well-planned, callous, chilling and apparently motiveless killing”.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “Prisoners are entitled to apply to be married in prison under the Marriages Act 1983.
“This would take place at no cost to the taxpayer and there is no possibility that they would share a cell.”
The Sun.
Adorable!
Mail Online readers - somewhat surprisingly - are not so keen.
NB The photos show them at the time of their arrests some time ago, so they may not look quite so hot now. Sorry.
NB The photos show them at the time of their arrests some time ago, so they may not look quite so hot now. Sorry.
PS Anyone remember this story about two killers getting gaymarried in a French prison? Almost certainly a hoax - or at least a politically motivated PR stunt - by the notorious far right anti-semitic French comedian, Dieudonne M'bala.
Update: Rod Liddle's piece on this for The Sunday Times is titled, Do you murderous queer basher take this gay man?
Update: Rod Liddle's piece on this for The Sunday Times is titled, Do you murderous queer basher take this gay man?
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