EASTERNBLOC

normally a new gay bar opening isn't all that interesting to me, especially these days (5-1/3 months dating my wonderful BF, but who's counting?)..... but this one grabbed my attention. First it's the late 80's retro (oh god, my 30's are now considered "retro"!!??) design, bringing back memories of wearing those tacky CCCP t-shirts and Lenin pins and all that.... Probably more so, it's opening up in the same space as the old Wonder Bar at 505 e 6th St. Gosh, the amount of time I spent in that tiny back room, er, watering hole drinking $1.00 beers on Wendesdays, tacky movies on Mondays, looking for my wallet on the floor, etc., etc.... I digress. And then, riding in the rain home last night, I notice the door is ajar, I stop, poke my head in, and on his hands and knees (painting, I realize later) is the proprietor, that hot man I mentioned a couple weeks back! I mutter something like "hey, new bar?" and he smiles beautifully, obviously with pride, telling me it opens in 2 days, and I must stop by.
Swoon.       Drool.     swoon.

What? Oh stop - I probably won't go, anyway. But if I did, I'm just trying to support local gay businesses, sheeeesh!

What?

posted by bj at 12:08 PM

Oh, leave me something to breathe!

I was not a fan way back in 1980; in fact, I don't think it was until 1989's The Sensual World that I really appreciated her music. That disc I played to death, just loving every murmur, every breath. From there I went back into the catalogue, and bought Never For Ever - which, of course, is just fantastic. Click the pic to hear Breathing, the final track from that album.

posted by bj at 12:36 PM

Pink Tanga Briefs

with all my eBay obsessiveness, how did I let this auction get away from me? And that teeny bit of ball showing - a very nice touch!

posted by bj at 2:25 PM

less and less to say....

and even the pics aren't always pornographic....
posted by bj at 6:59 PM

that certain summer

posted by bj at 11:10 AM

A for effort

Mmmmmmmmm, Don Bishop. Seems to have only been in one movie, College Station's Frat House One, where he slips out of his black speedo just as a buddy, Glen Denard, walks in on him. Gosh, maybe I should have kept that little 1981 videotape. sigh. He did manage to make it into several magazines, even this one from years later, HOT MALE REVIEW's August 1988 issue.
posted by bj at 11:12 AM

remembering ROGER

during my early days on eBay, a really nice customer just outside NYC mailed me a stack of magazines; most I sold immediately, but this one, MANSCAPE 2, had this great spread on ROGER, called Remembering Roger, which includes this fantastic photograph. It's an 8-page, 8-pic, all color photospread - including a 2-page centerfold - beautifully photographed by someone named "Starbuck." Well, time to sell!

posted by bj at 5:19 PM

Mama don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys

posted by bj at 11:35 AM

uh oh

looks like you guys really know your butts!

From the looks of my in-box, many more than 5 of you got the answer right - SAL MINEO and DON JOHNSON. The pics are from the 1st issue of IN magazine, July 1969, taken at the Los Angeles production of Fortune & Men's Eyes, which Mineo directed.

posted by bj at 9:08 AM

who is it?

Think you know who these guys are and where this pic is from? The first 5(ish) folks who correctly identify the two men, and tell me where the pic is from (I don't mean what magazine i scanned it from), I'll mail you some sort of unsellable homosexual pornographic material - a magazine, a paperback, just a little freebie. Meanwhile, who wants to see the pic of BARRY (below) that I couldn't post in my eBay auction for the item?

posted by bj at 12:14 PM

muscleses, tattooses, and a flavor savor

ah, Barry, what more could anyone want?

posted by bj at 5:56 PM

how to be invisible

it's official - the new Kate Bush is so good that my constant playing, and cranking up the volume on various tunes, has gotten me into an argument with my next door neighbor! (She lets her door slam shut all the time, shaking and rattling my shelves of vintage dinnerware, and tells ME.... I digress.)

Friday evening I arrived at the boyfriend's apartment baring (bearing?) the gift of music, and upon opening the door heard the intoxicating strumming of what is now my current fave song on the album - How To Be Invisible. Oh well - fortunately I had a back-up present, a tupperware full of fresh-baked cookies. Next I thought of giving the disc to my neighbor buddy, but before I could do that I got an email from him telling me he's got it! Dang! And I just can't return the thing, it would seem so, um, anti-Kate to return it, you know? Luckily a pal of mine is celebrating his birthday this week, so I have his gift all ready! Here is one of my all-time favorite Kate songs, This Woman's Work from her fantastic 1989 album, The Sensual World.

posted by bj at 10:57 AM

NOT porno

Currently I have quite a few gay-themed, homo-themed, hustler-themed NON-PORNO books, I figured you might enjoy a quick look. One of my favorite 'blurbs' is from the back cover of The Twilight Sex - "A frank and alarming study about the forbidden sex practices of homosexuals. The physical passion of one man for another is the least understood deviation of our times - and the most popular! It's so nice to be popular.

posted by bj at 9:51 AM

i wanna be up on the roof

i've just finished listening to Kate Bush's new album, Aerial. not gonna dissect it, but i do love it. After hearing one song this morning, which i picked out to share - an architect's dream - I went out and bought two copies; one for me, and one for my sweet boyfriend. But i have to say, right now, as I am blasting the stereo, the final song, on the second disc, the title track, is just so, well, gee, - so wonderfully Kate Bush! Not other way to describe it. But don't go looking for the song - you must let it come to you in the way it's intended, at the end of a beautiful journey through both discs.

posted by bj at 2:33 PM

don't sell, don't sell

"Endowed with a magnificent body and stunning good looks, Terry Wallace wanted the fame and glamour of being a star. He found it as a female impersonator. Eventually stardom brought him into contact with many unusual men, and he discovered his strange talent to appease physical and spiritual hunger with them all. But each new thrill only made Terry painfully aware of the emptiness of his abnormal passion."

damn! I was all ready to post this for auction, but Jay Little's Somewhere Between The Two, with it's man character a female impersonator, is a bit unusual. And doing a bit of research, of course one of my favorite online sources for info on vintage paperbacks - Adult Novels of Men in the Womanless World - Gay Pulp Fiction of the 1950's and 1960's - had this to say:

"The Paperback Library was a New York publisher that reprinted many gay-themed novels (both gay positive and negative) as exploitation pulps. Some, like James Barr's Quatrefoil (1965, originally 1950), were highly acclaimed works and is even back in print today. The common theme is gay men coming to terms with their sexuality in the "shadowy alleys of cities," and they are often gritty and dark. Several notable titles include K. B. Raul's Naked to the Night (1964) and Jay Little [Clarence Lewis Miller]'s Maybe - Tomorrow (1965, orig 1952), the latter tagged as "America's Secret Best Seller." The Paperback Library could seemingly take anything and turn it into an exploitation novel, but almost all Paperback Library are actually worth reading. Despite their motivations, they performed a service by taking good books originally from smaller publishers and reprinting them for a mass audience."

grrrrrr

posted by bj at 12:40 PM

Yup, they're all up for sale, auctions over this afternoon (quite likely well well before you even read this) - but just in case, here are the eBay auctin links: STAG #2, from 1967; Straight TO Hell - issues 46-51; PHYSIQUE PICTORIAL Vol 29, from 1977, with lots of Athletic Model Guild photos; and of course, a magazine jock-full of NOVA stars - JOCK SHOTS - GYM NASTIES #2

posted by bj at 9:03 AM

local boy makes it big

HONCHO DISCOVERY: K. GARRETT

After years of searching all the seediest spots in NYC (OK, so maybe I wasn't always looking for magazines...), I've finally found this October 1999 issue of HONCHO magazine with a gorgeous neighborhood man on the cover. HONCHO claims to have discovered him in 1999, but many of us discovered him many years earlier, bartending at CROWBAR on east 10th St. Sometime later, he moved on to that place in Chelsea, BARRACUDA, so I didn't see him around much. But then, one spring afternoon, riding my bike through Thompkins Square Park, just about to circle the dog run, I spot him, leaning on the dogrun fence. My heart stops, and so do I, taking out my cheap camera and trying some telephoto lens nonsense, but not much detail at that distance. So I began riding again, slowly circling the dog run until I get close, then behind this man. OMG! His levi's are riding just a bit low - not sleazy low, but just enough to give a hint of, oh jesusmaryandjoseph! - a BIKE brand swimmer-style jockstrap! As I slowly passed him, peddling just enough to keep my balance, I thought I was gonna faint; too shy to try the camera again, way too shy to stop. A few hairs peaked above the 'strap, below the t-shirt, as I slowly moved along, trying to get my heart beating again.....

Of course, now, I can gaze at his pics on BMB; and to tell you the truth, the man looks zillions better now, 6 years after that HONCHO spread. Still, I just don't know if I can be disciplined enough to sell this issue.

posted by bj at 2:50 PM

is that a nightstick in your hand or...

Early 90's, Catalina-era Aiden Shaw.

posted by bj at 3:33 PM

LEATHER MASTER

I just don't get why my magazine auction for LEATHER MASTER, a fantastic periodical from 1975, is only selling for 99 cents! With such fantastic articles as BEEFY BIKER, BUSTED BRONCO, BOUND JOCK, and ROPE TRICK, I was certain I'd make a couple of bucks on it.

Sigh.

Maybe I should have posted a COLOR pic of that guy on the fabulous 70's couch above. Click pic to go to eBay auction, more pics here.

posted by bj at 10:12 AM

very very soon, there will no doubt be some gay porn rambling on this page. 1st I have to get PETERREADER.COM to take me off their list of "contributors" - um, if I hadn't noticed they were HOTLINKING my images, I wouldn't have known the site even existed, ferchrissakes! SO I guess "contributor" = "guy who's blogpics get unknowingly posted elsewhere"

Meanwhile, on a more serious note - file this one under "SAD FACTS" - Dan White served 5-1/2 years for killing Harvey Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone; Matthew Limon served 5-1/2 years for having oral sex with a consenting 14-year-old.

posted by bj at 10:26 AM

MATTHEW LIMON OUT OF PRISON

While he's still under "house arrest," after 5-1/2 years in prison, he's finally out! Since yesterday evening, he's been with his aunt and uncle, on a farm, under the big beautiful Kansas sky.

The AP wire story wasn't written by the guy who'd been following the story for years, John Hanna, and is poorly written, to say the least. Just notice this one sentence, and the different account by the KANSAS CITY STAR -

AP: "The defendant appeared in court Thursday handcuffed and wearing in a
bright orange jumpsuit, smiling and waving to family members."


KANSAS CITY STAR: "At Thursday�s hearing, Limon appeared in orange jail clothing with his hands shackled at the waist. His long hair was pulled into a ponytail. As Limon waited for his attorneys and the judge to enter the courtroom, his leg constantly twitched.Attorney Byron Cerrillo later said his client was 'nervous, very nervous.'"

Here's the full KANSAS CITY STAR account. - normally, I'd link to it, but you'd have to register.

Defendant in gay sex case released from Kansas jail

By LAURA BAUER

The Kansas City Star

PAOLA, Kan. � After serving five years in prison, part of a sentence that the Kansas Supreme Court recently ruled was unfair, Matthew Limon is no longer behind bars.

The 23-year-old was released from the Miami County Jail on Thursday evening and will stay with relatives in Deerfield in western Kansas. According to a court affidavit, Limon will work on his aunt and uncle�s farm while the Miami County attorney and the attorney general�s office decide their next moves.

The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Oct. 21 that the state can�t punish homosexual underage sex more harshly than heterosexual activity. The ruling was heralded as a victory for gay rights.

In 2000, when Limon was 18, he was sentenced to 17 years in prison for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old boy while both were attending a Paola school for the developmentally disabled. If Limon had been convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl at age 18, under Kansas� so-called Romeo and Juliet law, he would have received a maximum sentence of 15 months.

Miami County Attorney David Miller, who Thursday said he thought the 17-year sentence was correct, has until Nov. 26 to decide whether to file different charges against Limon.

The state attorney general�s office has until late January to decide whether to appeal the ruling.

Though Attorney General Phill Kline initially said he had no plans to appeal, Miller said Thursday that had changed.

�They have not decided whether or not they�ll� appeal, Miller said after a motion hearing discussing Limon�s release.

If no new charge is filed, Limon could be free from supervision. But if Miller charges Limon, he could be jailed again with the possibility of posting a bond.

At Thursday�s hearing, Limon appeared in orange jail clothing with his hands shackled at the waist. His long hair was pulled into a ponytail. As Limon waited for his attorneys and the judge to enter the courtroom, his leg constantly twitched.

Attorney Byron Cerrillo later said his client was �nervous, very nervous.�

Limon�s attorneys asked Miami County District Judge Richard Smith to release Limon under strict conditions, requiring him to stay with his aunt and uncle, not have contact with children, and attend sex-offender treatment and counseling.

They also asked that Limon be allowed to go to church on Sundays.

�Matthew has God in his life,� said Cerrillo, of the Johnson County public defender�s office. �He would sit with (his aunt and uncle) and go home.�

Smith said he would agree to release Limon, but not until his attorney could arrange for his release to be monitored by a qualified agency.

At first, it wasn�t clear whether that could be arranged on Thursday.

So attorneys and seven of Limon�s family members left the courtroom disappointed, thinking Limon wouldn�t be released Thursday. Family members left the courtroom without commenting.

�We had high hopes,� said Cerrillo immediately after the hearing. �But the judge said if we can get someone � he�ll release him. Hopefully, it�s just a phone call.�

Within two hours, Cerrillo and Attorney Paige Nichols were able to line up supervision, and Limon was released.

One condition that Smith included in the release order was for Limon to stay at his aunt and uncle�s home until Nov. 26, when the deadline for filing charges expires and the case is released from his jurisdiction.

In an affidavit requesting that her nephew live with her and her husband, Adrian Price told the judge that Limon would be well supervised.

�Matt has told me that he does not like cities because he gets confused and overwhelmed, so he will rarely, if ever, leave the farm without one of us,� Price wrote. �If Matt is allowed to live with us while the attorney general is deciding whether to ask for further review, we will keep him busy working on the farm and will encourage him to finish his high school education.�

posted by bj at 9:22 AM

Matthew Limon update

He's scheduled to have a hearing this afternoon, 3:30 CST, where his attorney is going to ask that he be released pending further action by the state of Kansas. Kansas is supposed to re-sentence him, and that should mean 4 years LESS THAN the time he has already served! Let's all cross our fingers, pray, chant, or whatever it is y'all do when you want something to go well.

There's a very good column over at FindLaw - The Kansas Supreme Court Rights a Wrong, Ruling that the State Cannot Penalize a Teenager for Being Gay - where the columnist notes that the Kansas Supreme Court should have taken this case years ago to reach this appropriate decision. She goes on to note that even in last week's decision, they erred in making Mr. Limon continue to stay in jail and wait for a hearing when they had the authority to simply free him right then and there!

posted by bj at 9:57 AM

from IN MAGAZINE, 1969

posted by bj at 5:30 PM

all saints day

john sex, klaus nomi, ludlam, freddy mercury, joey ramone, d. wojnarowicz, baby gregor, mapplethorpe, warhol, divine, leigh bowery, howie m., wendy o. williams....

posted by bj at 1:06 PM

don't inhale

So, my roommate's houseguest pops out of the other room, in his teeny tiny briefs, handsome, semi-hairy, dark; Spanish, I think. I'm readying eBay shipments, he's taking a shower. Gulp. 15 minutes later, I go into the bathroom and nearly gag on the 1/2 gallon of green cologne he's obviously dumped on his body. Phewwww. Not that I was worried about any sort of, well, ya know....
posted by bj at 11:32 AM