Friday, June 22, 2007

Superhero Returns July 26th


It looks like Who Wants To Be A Superhero is coming back for Season 2 and is on the schedule at Sci Fi for next month. Although I cannot locate any news information about the new season, it is slated to return on July 26th at 9pm.

AfterElton reports that this season will have a gay person present, although I'm not sure if we this is a superhero that is gay, a gay superhero, or a gay alter ego (talk about a special closet!) Pictured is a photo that AfterElton managed to snag of our hero, Parthenon.

In the first season, our gay superhero was out practically at the very start of the show. We had no chance to get to know anything about Levity. Hopefully this time will be different.

In any event, Parthenon, nee Dan Williams, is a utterly cute, and even has that wholesome superhero look to him. I'm already rooting for him, and I've not seen even the first promo for the show!

Mark your calenders, July 26th for season 2 of Who Wants To Be A Superhero!

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Daddysville Day!

Here are a couple of scenes I came across as I was bicycling. The first one, the state sign for Daddysville, is a crossroads near here. It's a real place!

As always, click the photo for a larger version.






Thursday, June 14, 2007

Audible Gay/Lesbian Category

I'm not sure if I want to be insulted, outraged or just plain mad. But I'm not any of those moods, instead just sort of surprised and dismayed. Over what?

It seems that when I peruse the Audible books category, Fiction/Gay & Lesbian, I can find all the porn that I might ever want. Straight porn at that! When listing audible books in that category, these are the first 15 titles that appear:
  1. Am I Blue? (Unabridged)
  2. Old Glory (Unabridged)
  3. Michael Tolliver Lives (Unabridged)
  4. Cry Destiny (Unabridged)
  5. The Best American Erotica 1993 (Unabridged Selections)
  6. The Best American Erotica 1994 (Unabridged Selections)
  7. The Best American Erotica 2004 (Unabridged Selections)
  8. The Best American Erotica 1995 (Unabridged Selections)
  9. The Best American Erotica 1996 (Unabridged Selections)
  10. The Best American Erotica 1997 (Unabridged Selections)
  11. The Best American Erotica 1999 (Unabridged Selections)
  12. The Best American Erotica 2000 (Unabridged Selections)
  13. The Best American Erotica 2002 (Unabridged Selections)
  14. The Best American Erotica 2001 (Unabridged Selections)
  15. Chocolate Sangria (Unabridged)
Ten of the 15 books are porn. Yes, gay & lesbian refer to sexual matters, but it also is an entire lifestyle. And I suppose it wouldn't bother me if all of these were gay/lesbian porn, but it is straight porn. I mean, c'mon!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Body Parts Online

I came across this headline, and it brought a smile: FDA cracks down on body parts companies

Why would I smile? Because many, many years ago, when the internet was still youngish, I set up an auction site (eBay didn't exist yet) selling body parts. Highest bidder wins a replacement heart! It was called BodyParts Online

It was a fully functional auction site. I had jobs set up to periodically "re-supply" new body parts, plus robots that would randomly post bids on various parts so that there was activity. The names that the robots used in bidding came from a collection of name/email addresses I had gathered from a couple of those emails people forwarded hoping to get 500 names so they got a free disney trip or something.

Of course, for the few actual people that bid, I had still more robots to outbid them. It would have been hell if someone won a bid for a new left hand and expected delivery.

It was short-lived, lasting less than a year, but Yahoo listed it at the top of their auction category, even giving it a pair of sunglasses to denote a cool site. A french newspaper came across it and, near as I could get translated, absolutely loved it.

Ah, those were the days when it was fun and cool to be on the bleeding edge. And a hell raiser, to boot! (If my cohort in setting this up reads this, can you remember about what year this was?)

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Tiny Frog

Earlier this afternoon, I came across this little critter on the struts to the umbrella. He apparently climbed into it while it was closed.

I don't know if this is the same little frog that I come across occasionally at the bedroom window, but I would suspect so, as it is fairly close on the deck near the umbrella.

By and large he ignored me as I did stuff at the table underneath him. Eventually he moved to a strut on the other side of the umbrella opposite me, but otherwise seemed perfectly happy. Most critters around my house seem to know that they are safe from trouble. Well, except for the squirrel that is stealing my tomatoes! I'll be getting an airgun after him soon!

Friday, June 08, 2007

Michael Tolliver Lives

I guess it just snuck up on me, but Armistead Maupin has finally written another book for his awesome Tales of the City series: Michael Tolliver Lives.

According to Maupin, this is not a followup to the original books, but how can it be anything else? From the blurbs I can find it will include Michael of course, plus Brian and Mrs. Madrigal. Considering how close Mona and Mouse were, you know that she too will appear.

For years, Maupin has stated that he would not write any more to the series, as it was supposed to be about farm girl Mary Ann coming to the big city of San Francisco. Once she moved on, that was the end of the story, so said Maupin. But now we get to find out what happened to Michael,
who had been diagnosed with HIV in the previously final book.

I have been a huge fan of this series for a couple of decades now. There is one passage about a closeted man that Michael discovers is gay. He says something to the effect of "yea, I did see he wore green on Thursdays." To this day I wear green for fun every week! I found a hardcover 6-volume collectors set that I purchased. Unfortunately, upon lending out the books to other to read, one book never made it back and is lost forever. Damn!

As I write this I am waiting for our local gay bookstore in Raleigh, White Rabbit Books, to open. Hopefully they will have copies when it releases next Tuesday, in which case I will spend my pink dollars at a pink store. Otherwise I will get it from Amazon. When the gay book reading group I belong to meets comes this Friday, I already know what I will be talking about!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Gay Days 2007

Over the weekend I traveled to Orlando to join the Gay Days fun. It was my first visit to the annual pilgrimage of gay men and women to Disney, and I had a blast!

A group of us from Raleigh started talking back in January about making the trip this year. Nine of us went, and we had our own Gay Days t-shirts printed up. Stayed at the same hotel and had a little caravan of cars on the drive down.

This was my first visit, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew from past years that the religious fanatics would protest, and talk radio would always be buzzing, so I expected to see at least a couple of neanderthals. But I didn't see a single one. I guess I just wasn't looking into the right crack in the sidewalk!

It was a very festive time, with everyone friends with everyone else. The day started at IHOP and Marie, pictured, serving us. She was sassy and fun! At the park, during the raft trips to Tom Sawyer island, people on each raft were waving back at the other raft, always ending with the queens wave, of course. And it was truly a sea of red shirts at the Magic Kingdom, especially around the 3:00 parade. It was all fun and games, and practically any and every type of person was to be found somewhere.

A lot of the t-shirts had something written on them, from cute to arrogant to everything in between. What I found funny were these 2 lads, wearing their phone numbers on their shirts. When they turned around, Justin turned out to be the spitting image of Stephen Fry. They both had handkerchiefs in their pockets, but since I couldn't remember what the colors stood for, I ask them. "Nothing, we make a rainbow when everyone is around." According to the Hanky Code though, Matt would be a bottom and Justin is up for anything, anytime. Funny!


After the park, it was back to the hotel for a disco nap, shower, then off to Parliament House. That place is huge, and it was packed! There was a dance floor of course, plus several satellite bars. There is a pool, but I can't say that I saw anyone actually in it, this being late in the night. Out back there was a "foam party", something completely new to me. Basically it is a pool of foam about 3 feet deep, similar to the bubbles from dish soap. Guys will strip down to a swimsuit, or more commonly their underwear. Into the foam guys would plunge, and use your imagination about what happened next!

We did a lot of other things of course. I spent all day Sunday at Sea World while several others decided to attend MCC services. We got a late start to Sea World, seeing as we stayed up all hours the night before at Parliament, and I was whooped by the end of the day. Several went to Parliament House again and I think they closed it down. There was the trade show with so many companies showing their wares along with their corporate gay awareness. On the 3rd floor of the hotel was a leathermens club offering any information and education that you were willing to receive. I declined to participate in the 9 o'clock closed door seminar.

As is always the case when dealing with couples, things weren't always smooth. Of the 3 couples, there was at least one time each when things became very strained with at least one of the partners. One the boyfriend disappeared for a bit too long at the bar. Another got drunk too fast and was flirting a lot. The third I didn't realize until I scanned my pictures after returning, and I'm not sure anyone else saw it.

We all had fun, and I will probably go back. Maybe not next year, but it is something to be repeated. The only real thing I would change next time around might be the location of the hotel. I think I would like to be nearer to the center of the activity, possibly at the Gay Days host hotel, The Plaza, or maybe at the nightlife epicenter, Parliament.

I took lots of pictures, and once I've cleaned them up and sorted through them, I will post an entry to them.