Elaine Lancaster
Julie Schwachenwald
Aaron Paul
Alexa Vega
Barbara Bach
Bobo of Cypress Hill
Cesar Millan
Chandra Wilson
Daryl Dragon
Diana Scarwid
Downtown Julie Brown
Jonny Moseley
Mario
Mase
Paul Reubens
Pete Stormare
Sarah Chalke
Tom Ford
Tuesday Weld
Yolanda Adams
The post August 27: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.
August 27th, 1961– Tom Ford:
“I don’t think of myself as gay. That doesn’t mean that I’m not gay. I just don’t define myself by my sexuality.”
Not only am I inspired by people who along with tremendous talent, are also able to “brand” themselves. I want to follow in their footsteps. I have written about Martha Stewart, Andy Warhol & Keith Haring, all masters at the art.
I would like to have my own line of products: nipple clamps made from re-purposed office supplies, cocktail mixers, & a magazine Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Lifestyle. There would be a STEVE! TV network, which would only show films & series re-runs that I appear in, that I love, or that feature: Steve Allen, Steve Buscemi, Steve Reeves, Steve Carell, or Steve McQueen. I want my own fragrance Stephen Touché Douche: with notes of nutmeg, whiskey, dirt, & a just hint of desperation.
Thomas Carlyle Ford has not only made himself a part of his own product, he is his own muse. Each time I have come upon a print ad for Tom Ford, a man who has the right stuff & designs beautiful clothing; I have earmarked the magazine ad & said to The Husband:
“Wow, can you believe how beautiful he is? Plus, the clothing & accessories are gifts from a genius”.
The Husband concurs. Ford:
“I think I detach the physical from the spiritual. It’s my business to make a woman or a man beautiful, & I’m working with a model in a fitting, & I’ve objectified them to the point that they become an object.”
“They’re something that I’m modeling or shaping or sculpting, but I’m very aware that even though I make them physically beautiful, their soul & personality & character is somewhat detached from that. It’s great when you have a combination of the two. That’s what makes a true beauty. Some people are physically beautiful but yet they’re completely uninteresting, & thus they’re not beautiful. I detach the two. That’s why I think gay men make better designers.”
I would be very pleased to be snowed-in at a mountain cabin for a few days with Ford. I would try my best to leave him inspired. He is Daniel Craig‘s designer of choice, & that is all the endorsement I need.
Ford moved from Austin to NYC to study interior architecture at Parsons’ at The New School For Design. During that era, Ford was known to hang out at the legendary Studio 54. The club’s disco-era glamour would be a major influence on his designs.
Ford lived in Paris in the mid-1980s, where he worked as an intern at Chloé. The job involved sending clothes out on photo shoots, which began his love of fashion. He spent his final year at Parsons’ studying fashion, but still graduated with a degree in architecture.
In the 1990s, Ford for worked as creative director of Gucci, turning around the venerable house from bankruptcy to huge profits. He then acquired the house of Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) in 1999, again, serving as creative director. He left in 2004 to start his own company with a line of women’s & menswear, eyewear, & accessories.
This year, Ford was named one of GQ‘s 50 Best Dressed Men & CFDA Fashion Award for Menswear Designer Of The Year. His designs for men & women are classic, deceptively simple, sophisticated & above all, sexual seductive.
I am in love with Tom Ford, but alas, he has been with journalist Richard Buckley, 14 years his senior, for 32 years, married in 2014. Ford was just 25 years old when they met. He claims it was “love at first sight” & that in that moment, he decided he would marry Buckley, who was 38 years old, “in the length of an elevator ride.”
At least he is into a daddies. Buckley is the former Editor In Chief at Vogue Hommes International. He was diagnosed with that damn cancer in 1989 & was not really expected to make it. After his recovery the couple moved from NYC to Italy with their toddler, Alexander. Ford:
“I went to a fashion show & this silver-haired guy was staring at me with these piercing water-blue eyes. It scared me because I absolutely saw & knew my entire future. You can look at someone & feel like you’ve known them forever. That first night, I had drinks with Richard, & I felt I knew everything about him.”
Sitting in the luxurious infusion suite at the Oncologist clinic, I passed up the 24 year old copy of Field & Stream for a 2013 Interview magazine with Ford. I was gobsmacked to learn this tid-bit:
“When I come home… I wear no clothes until I leave. I eat naked. I do everything completely naked.”
The 3 Ford-Buckleys share their lives with 2 smooth fox terriers. Their first dog, John, lived 14 years with the couple & appeared on the runway & in photo shoots. Currently, they have Angus & India, who are 9 & 6 years old. These terriers appeared in Ford’s brilliant, heartbreaking film A Single Man, based on a novel by yesterday’s #BornThisDay subject, Christopher Isherwood. It was, for me, a masterful directorial debut & a stunning film.
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M&Ms are on a ROLL lately. In addition to the fabulous new Pecan Pie M&Ms (you hadn’t heard? Well, MY DEAR., they’re to die for!), a Mars Candy rep confirmed to People magazine that a pumpkin spice latte flavor will hit Target stores this week. Think about it: Little pellets of pumpkin spice goodness. In a bag. Just for you. Yum!
Says the magazine:
The seasonal M&Ms come in very autumnal packaging, featuring a maternal brown M&M wrapped up in a chunky scarf, sipping on a latte. (She’s wearing glasses, of course.)
We’re interested in seeing how the “latte” part comes into play, flavor-wise. Will these be creamier-tasting than last year’s pumpkin spice M&Ms? There’s only one way to find out, and that’s by frantically buying up all the new PSL M&Ms the moment they appear in our local Target.
The product is available at Walmart for the “Halloween timeframe” — adding that “some stores are likely starting to display it now” — in 9.9 oz bags with a suggest retail price of $2.98.
I’m on my way to Target RIGHT NOW.
The post Snack Time: Pumpkin Spice Latte M&Ms Are Now a Thing appeared first on World of Wonder.
We’re literally counting down the days until the season 8 premiere of Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles next Wednesday, September 2 at 9PM on Bravo! (6 more days to go OMG.) But fear not, because the good folks at TV Guide have put together an interview with #MDLLA star Josh Flagg to hold us over for at least a little while longer! Check it out below.
(Image via Bravo)
Season 8 is big for Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles star and uber-broker Josh Flagg. He’s earning bigger commissions. He’s buying a bigger house. And he’s getting into even bigger fights with hotheaded rival Josh Altman. It’s also Flagg’s first full season since the death of his beloved grandmother, fashion entrepreneur Edith. Flagg gives us all the scoop on the feelings and dealings to come.
Who’s your most demanding client this time around?
He’s in the premiere: This kid I went to high school with, whom I didn’t remember. I still don’t know who he was. It’s possible he didn’t actually go to school with me. He could be a serial killer for all I know. He had grand delusions of what his house was.
But he’s not as unbearable as dealing with Josh, right?
Josh is a nightmare every season. We just have completely different styles-in that I’m not a used-car salesman. [Laughs]
Last year you very publicly dealt with the loss of your grandma. What was it like going through that in front of cameras?
It was very difficult. It was also difficult to watch. But people really loved my grandmother, and it would have been strange if we didn’t include that. She was also 94 years old and had a fabulous life. We should all be so lucky.
What got you and longtime boyfriend Colton Thorn to finally buy a house of your own?
You can’t live in a hotel for the rest of your life! Well, you can, but you’d be a little tight for space. We’re probably going to tear down the house that’s there and build something great on the land that both Colton and I will design.
You’re the only broker left from Season 1. How long do you plan on sticking around?
I’ll do this when I’m in a wheelchair, if they want me back.
6 MORE DAYS! 6 MORE DAYS!!!
The post TV Guide Magazine Sits Down With “Million Dollar Listing: Los Angeles” Star Josh Flagg appeared first on World of Wonder.
The evolution continues. In a new clip from I Am Cait, Caitlyn Jenner tells her friend Jennifer Finney Boylan that she is warming to the idea of dating a man. “It would be very attractive to me,” she says, “to have a guy treat me like a woman.”
“What does that mean?” her friend asks.
“That you would be treated like a normal woman…like any other woman on the street. Not make it this big trans thing or this or that. Just a normal relationship,” Caitlyn answers.
Boylan finds this train of thought to be slightly problematic and reminds her that she’s already a “normal woman” and that it’s both natural and silly to feel that a man will validate her as such.
“It’s a thing that women do. We look to men to give us self-worth,” Jennifer says. “I think now that you’re in the sisterhood, you have gone through such trouble to become a woman. Don’t be a stupid one. Be a smart one.”
Watch the clip here.
Via International Business Times:
As fans of the show will note, although this is the first time that Caitlyn has openly discussed dating a man on the show, it’s not the first time she’s addressed her sexual orientation. According to Entertainment Weekly, it came up during episode 3, but she said it was too early to tell who she was attracted to at that time. While it’s a confusing topic for the former “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” star, until now she hasn’t been able to comment one way or another. In episode 2 of “I am Cait,” she revealed that, although she’s always been attracted to women, the idea of dating a man wasn’t out of the question. Above all else, she says she wanted to “have the right parts” before she considers dating at all. In other words, until she’s followed through with her gender reassignment surgery, which she says will be the last thing she does in terms of her transition, she won’t be actively searching for a relationship.
The post Caitlyn Jenner Says She Is Interested In Dating a Man appeared first on World of Wonder.
Justin Vivian Bond — Weimar New York for Obama — by David Kimelman
The ever-iconic Justin Vivian Bond was asked to make a statement to The New York Times about the recent raid of Rentboy.com by the Department of Homeland Security. She said she wasn’t sure what they’d print, so she decided to share the entire transcript of her statement on Facebook. Read it below and bow before the goddess.
“I think that to many in our community this feels like a throwback to when the police raided gay bars in the 50s and 60s. Despite the salaciousness of the language in the complaint I don’t think the charges will stick because basically the site provides a forum for people to meet and make personal arrangements on their own. Rentboy.com may be a provocative title but sexy, fun language is not illegal. This invasion of a consensual hook-up site which is run for and by members of the LGBT community feels like a real slap in the face after gentrification, and the Giuliani and Bloomberg administrations drove so many NYC gay bars out of business and forced people to meet online instead of in person.
“Also, if the people who register with Rentboy.com are trading sexual encounters for money they are doing so on their own terms, with agency, and presumably without being coerced by outside forces other than the need to earn a living in a difficult economic climate. Sex workers in our culture need to be protected, respected and applauded not harassed and shamed.
“Because of this raid 1,000s of independent workers worldwide will not be able to pay their rent this month and they are concerned about what this means for their safety and legal protection. There is a movement happening and many organizations creating Know Your Rights seminars this week. This is about workers’ rights–labor rights and equal protections for all kinds of workers without basic access to legal and healthcare support because they are deemed criminals or denied access to banking, housing or Facebook, in all sectors of the Adult industry, not just escorts. It’s about sex phobia and public shaming. Sex workers are strong and have organizations like Urban Justice Center and SWOP Sex Workers Outreach Project whom you might want to reach out to.
“Mainly, I feel that this is a perfect example of the hypocrisy of mainstream patriarchal culture and the government. Queer people are now invited to join in the systems of oppression -i.e. the military and marriage- that straight people have supported and engaged in for years but when it comes to freedom of choice as to what to do with our bodies women and the LGBT Community are still being exploited by the government and power hungry individuals for the purposes of financial gain and career advancement. I mean, is this really a “Homeland Security Issue?” I don’t think so. A gay man in Brooklyn who happens to have a “rimchair” is hardly the equivalent of someone on a commuter train with an AK-47. Years of undercover work and untold amounts of city and federal taxpayer dollars were spent on this this undercover sting operation and who was being harmed? Nobody.”
What do you think? Leave your comments about the Rentboy.com raid in the Facebook comments section. (via Queerty)
The post Justin Vivian Bond Speaks Out About the Rentboy.com Raid: “It’s About Sex Phobia and Public Shaming” appeared first on World of Wonder.
Teen Wolf star and noted exhibitionist Tyler Posey went skateboarding in his underwear (why not?) and posted the video to Instagram saying “Getting in a little early morning undies sesh. Thanks Freshpark for hooking a brotha up.” Simply MESMERIZED by the new thigh tattoos. Watch it below.
My GOD, he’s wonderful. (via Towleroad)
The post Tyler Posey Goes Skateboarding In His Underoos Because Life Is Good appeared first on World of Wonder.
Superfab teeny tiny skulls carved from pearls and made into gorgeously macabre rings and brooches by Tokyo-based jewelry designer Shinji Nakaba. All the items on his website are beyooooond amazing and completely covet worthy, but I’m with Dangerous Minds, who says they’d love to see an entire skull pearl necklace by Nakaba. Ugh. Can you imagine? I’d wear dozens of them, Chanel-style, and be the belle of the goth ball scene (is that a thing? It’s probably a thing. And I’m going to TAKE. IT. OVER).
Check them out below.
Pearl skulls aren’t the only things that Nakaba makes. Says Bored Panda: Everything he produces is wearable, and he often uses unconventional materials to create his pieces.
“I just want to bring brand new life to something that has no value,” says Nakaba. “I use not only precious metals and stones, but also everyday things, such as aluminum beer cans, plastic bottle, or even garbage,” he explains on Etsy.
The post Must-Have OTD: Tiny Skulls Carved from Pearls appeared first on World of Wonder.
Amy Wigler
Elise Duran
Greg Gorman
Josh Kilmer- Purcell
Andrej Pejic
Armie Hammer
Billy Boyd
Carly Pope
David Fincher
Emma Samms
Florence Welch
Jack Black
Jason Priestly
Jennifer Coolidge
Kyle Massey
LeAnn Rimes
Luis Guzman
Sarah Roemer
Scott Hamilton
Shania Twain
Todd Eldredge
The post August 28: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.
August 28th, 1825– Karl Ulrichs:
“The Urning is a person. He, too, therefore, has inalienable rights. His sexual orientation is a right established by nature. Legislators have no right to veto nature; no right to persecute nature in the course of its work; no right to torture living creatures who are subject to those drives nature gave them.”
Did you kids know that the Broadway Musical & the term “homosexuality” were invented almost simultaneously? Pure coincidence?
In the middle of the 19th century, beginning in Paris with Jacques Offenbach & in Vienna with Johann Strauss, the operetta was waltzing & can-canned its way across Europe. In the very same era, America stumbled upon a Musical Theatre style of its own. The Black Crook (1866) barely had a plot, loads of crappy songs & scads of spectacle. There had been American musicals before this show, but this was the first to be a great big SRO hit. It spawned hundreds more musical spectaculars with fantasy themes, known as “extravaganzas”. American audiences made these early musicals a major player of what was then referred to as “The Show Business.” The Musical Theatre Queen was born.
Meanwhile back in Europe, a lawyer, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs seemed restless, often moonlighting as a freelance writer. As a closet gay guy, he risked financial ruin & jail time in engaging in a relationship with a soldier or any other man.
When he was 34 years old, Ulrichs lost his government job because he was gay. He began publishing pamphlets explaining & defending the love between men. When he had just turned 42 years old, he addressed the German Congress, coming out of the closet publicly & demanding they repeal the anti-gay laws. He was shouted down before he could finish his speech. His books were banned.
Ulrichs’s goal was to free gay people like from the legal, religious, & social condemnation of homosexual acts as unnatural. He insisted that people like him were born this way. For this, he invented new terminology that would refer to the nature of the individual, & not to the acts performed. He used the terrific term “Uranian” (the term homosexual was not coined until 1869 by his Ulrich’s associate Karl-Maria Kertbeny). I wish we could go back to Uranian, it has a special ring to it. He continued writing about homosexuality for the rest of his life.
100 years before Stonewall, Ulrichs book Araxes stated the modern arguments in favor of Gay Rights. In 1879, he published Research On The Riddle Of Man Love. The film rights were snapped up by Channing Tatum’s production company. In bad health & sensing he had done everything he could for his cause in Germany, Ulrichs traveled to Italy where he settled in L’Aquila, where his health improved. I know that I always feel better in Italy.
Ulrichs continued to write prolifically & published his works (in German & Latin) using his own money. In 1895, he received an honorary diploma from the University Of Naples, shortly after he died alone & broke in L’Aquila, where he had lived as the guest of a local landowner, Marquis Niccolò Persichetti, who gave this eulogy at his funeral:
“With your loss, oh Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the fame of your works & your virtue will not likewise disappear… but rather, as long as intelligence, virtue, learning, insight, poetry & science are cultivated on this earth & survive the weakness of our bodies, as long as the noble prominence of genius & knowledge are rewarded, we & those who come after us will shed tears & scatter flowers on your venerated grave.”
Ignored in the USA, & mostly forgotten by nearly everyone else for decades, Ulrichs is now a cult figure in Europe. There are streets named for him in Munich, Bremen & Hanover. His birthday is marked each year by with a street party & poetry reading at Karl-Heinrich-Ulrichs-Platz in Munich. Every year, The International Lesbian & Gay Law Association gives the Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Award for distinguished contributions to the advancement of LGBTQ equality. The city of L’Aquila has restored his grave, the headstone reads: Exile & Pauper, & hosts an annual pilgrimage to the cemetery.
Ulrichs was the first person I know of that urged others to come out of the closet (first to family, next publicly); insist that homosexuality was not sin, disease, or crime; demand equal rights for everyone including women; abolish anti-gay laws, insist that churches accept homos; address suicide, murder, police harassment, blackmail, military, family values, hate crimes, privacy issues, economics, democracy, & even marriage.
My research finds that Ulrichs was quite delighted & amused by singing, dancing felines. I like to think that this most important of gay rights pioneers would have named Cats, now & forever, as his favorite Broadway Musical.
The post #BornThisDay: Gay Rights Pioneer, Karl Ulrichs appeared first on World of Wonder.
The internet LOVES cats and it LOVES RuPaul’s Drag Race, so it was bound to happen, right? There is now an Instagram account called RuPaw’s Drag Race in which a cat is dressed as some of your favorite Drag Race personalities like Violet Chachki, Raja, Adore, and my favorite Michelle Visage. Check out their Instagram and follow! And follow WOW, too!
(via Frontiers)
The post #InstagramYouShouldBeFollowing: RuPaw’s Drag Race on Instagram appeared first on World of Wonder.
Nipples! We got nipples! And not just ANY nipples: MEN’S Nipples! JAPANESE Men’s nipples! A whole magazine devoted to them! Because men’s nipples don’t get nearly the love they deserve!
From Oddity Central:
The magazine is a fan-made dojinshi, which is a Japanese term for self-published magazines, novels, or manga. Its title literally translates to “Everyone Loves a Man Nipple: Photobook.” And it stays true to its name – the cover carries a close-up shot of a male nipple, along with the names of all the nipple-models used in the issue. The inside is filled with nipple-shots too, clicked from every angle imaginable.
The magazine was created by a certain Mr. Minazuki, who says he came up with the idea after a “mipple” Twitter post of his went viral. He then found 19 guys and asked them to be his nipple models and voila – the birth of GENIUS.
The magazine was distributed to the people who attended the first day of the most recent Comiket (Tokyo’s comic market). But if you’re interested, it still is available for purchase online at Melonbooks. Commenters have been mostly positive: “Wow, male nipples are so much more powerful than I ever imagined!” said one. “Little ones, big ones, they’re all just as different as the people whose chests they reside on.”
Indeed they are. (via Oddity Central)
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Here at WOW, we’re having TOO MUCH FUN with our fun t-shirts, as today is fun t-shirt friday! Check out some of the employees of WOW staying COOL FOR THE SUMMER on the roof of WOW!
The post It’s Fun T-Shirt Friday! appeared first on World of Wonder.
Just in case you needed more of a reason to celebrate other than today just being Friday. Britney, Madonna, Christina Aguilera, and Missy Elliott opened the 2003 Video Music Awards at Radio City in New York city and CHANGED THE WORLD! First Britney came out in wedding dress à la Madonna at the 1984 VMAs doing a rendition of “Like a Virgin” atop a giant wedding cake. After that, Christina came out in a similar get-up. Then Madonna popped out of the top of the wedding cake, the song switched to her most recent single at the time, “Hollywood”, and she pranced down the stairs and kissed Britney. Unfortunately most of us didn’t even realize she leaned over and kissed Christina after that because we were all in shock over what just happened! AND because the camera swiftly switched to Justin Timberlake, Britney’s ex, who had attended the same award show with her just two years before in head-to-toe denim. Why am I explaining this like you don’t know? Just relive the whole thing for yourself. Don’t you feel old?
Christina Aguilera, Madonna & Britney Spears – Like A Virgin + Hollywood (MTV VMA’s 2003 2nd Version) from Iván Patricio on Vimeo.
The post #FlashbackFriday: Britney Kissed Madonna 12 Years Ago Today at MTV’s VMAs appeared first on World of Wonder.
I always feel a little malicious glee when I see receding hairlines on men. As someone who had an oh-so-tragic magenta combover at 27, it gives me no end of Schadenfreude to watch this Vine of George W Bush (in New Orleans this afternoon to mark the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina), showing off a shocking lack of frontal follicles. As Twitterer Dan Sinker so eloquently asked: “What the shit happened to his hair?” Yes. HA! Watch the Vine below.
The post So What’s Going on with George W Bush’s Hair? appeared first on World of Wonder.
Ellen Page spoke to Time magazine about her role in the upcoming movie Freeheld, being an LGBT advocate, and why you should NEVER call her brave.
“When people are called brave in regards to playing LGBTQ people, that’s borderline offensive,” she said. “I’m never going to be considered brave for playing a straight person, and nor should I be.” PREACH, HONEY.
In fact, she doesn’t think actors should be called brave, period. “Maybe this is a bad thing to say, but I have a hard time when people call actors brave. I don’t really get that, because our job is to read something on a page.”
RIGHT? RIGHT? It’s called ACTING. People do it every day! By the same token, let’s stop commending gay actors for being convincing when the play it straight (*cough. NPH. cough*).
Unfortunately, we need to brace ourselves for a whole new round of this “offensive” practice because this fall we have Eddie Redmayne playing transgender pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara falling in love in Carol, James Franco in I Am Michael, and then of course there’s Stonewall…. I feel like we’re going to be subjected to MONTHS of hearing how brave they all were…. And nominating them for taking on such daring projects…. GROAN.
Anyway, Ellen went on to talk about needing diversity in films –
“That’s obviously the huge issue, particularly for the LGBT community, but any minority. Native American and Native Canadian people: Where are these stories? I want to see these stories! And I’m hoping the shift is going to come really quick now. It’s evident from what people are watching on television that people want diversity. They want it. Whether they consciously know it or not, I’m not sure, but look at Orange is the New Black. You’re seeing actors that, if that show didn’t exist, we might not have ever seen—that are extraordinary. It makes me excited because the whole reason to go to a film is to disappear into another world, and to have your humanity connect with someone else’s, who you might not ever meet in your life! To be moved and have more compassion, that’s the wonderful thing all art can do, and particularly film! I want to see gay stories, of course, because I’m gay, and I want to connect to a reflection of my life on film. But I also want to see what it’s like to be a young Native person, African-American, African-Canadian. Hopefully that will keep changing.”
The post Ellen Page: “Stop Calling Straight Actors Playing LGBT Characters ‘Brave’ – It’s Borderline Offensive” appeared first on World of Wonder.
Carla Gugino
Courtney Stodden
Deborah Van Valkenburgh
Elliot Gould
Frances Ruffelle
Joel Schumacher
John McCain
Lea Michele
Liam Payne
Lucas Cruishank
Mark Morris
Michael Jackson
Meshell Ndegeocello
Rebecca De Mornay
Richard Attenborough
Robin Leach
Temple Grandin
Todd English
William Friedkin
William Levy
The post August 29: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on World of Wonder.
Carpenter on L with George Merrill
August 29, 1844– Edward Carpenter:
“I might have simply settled down into an armchair literary life. I really don’t know exactly why I didn’t.”
Gay Rights activist, socialist, feminist, pacifist, vegetarian, nudist, mystic, poet, essayist, sandal wearer… an apt description for the short biography to accompany my byline? Wrong. I would never wear sandals.
Challenging capitalism & the values of modern western civilization, Edward Carpenter had an important impact on the cultural & political landscape of the late 19th & early 20th centuries. Carpenter enjoyed lasting friendships with some of the greatest characters of his era: Walt Whitman, Robert Graves, Mahatma Gandhi, Oscar Wilde, E.M. Forster, Isadora Duncan & Emma Goldman. After reading Whitman’s Leaves Of Grass, Carpenter blissfully visualized a world of brotherly love that would do away with class systems & bring true freedom & democracy.
Carpenter graduated from Cambridge & then held a position there once filled by Leslie Stephen, the father of writer Virginia Woolf. He gave public lectures for the working class. He didn’t like to save his best ideas for the ruling elite. In 1891, after meeting by chance on a train, he & George Merrill, an uneducated worker, became lovers. In 1898, when Carpenter was 54 years old & Merrill was just 32 years old, they set up house together, unheard of in England which was profoundly anti-gay in sentiment after the Oscar Wilde trials.
They lived openly as a couple for 30 years, until Merrill’s passing, & their love affair, crossing the classes, was the direct inspiration for their friend E.M. Forster’s novel Maurice (1913, published in 1971) as well as D.H. Lawrence’s straight version of the story Lady Chatterley’s Lover (1921).
American Gay Rights pioneer Harry Hay credited Carpenter’s writings for galvanizing him to start the first Gay Rights organization, The Mattachine Society, in LA in 1950.
Carpenter felt strongly that people tend to settle down into a single deep permanent union, but along the way they should be experiencing a variety of relationships & sexual adventures. He warned that the ideal of exclusive attachment could easily lapse into stagnant 2-way selfishness. He saw a society with love & devotion between individuals without the quality of their love being defined by exclusiveness based on jealousy, a sense of the other person being private property, or social opinions & legal unions. He believed that those sorts of relationships suffocate love. Carpenter considered sex as a good thing & not a sign or cause of human frailty & sinfulness. All Carpenter’s opinions were considered revolutionary in his era, just as they are today.
Merrill left this incarnation suddenly & unexpectedly in January 1928. In May 1928, Carpenter suffered a stroke that left him mostly helpless. He lived another 13 months before he left this world on a perfect summer afternoon, June 28, 1929, exactly 40 years before the Stonewall Riots.
In 1910 Carpenter wrote:
“I should like these few words to be read over the grave when my body is placed in the earth; for though it is possible I may be present & conscious of what is going on, I shall not be able to communicate. Do not think too much of the dead husk of your friend, or mourn too much over it, but send your thoughts out towards the real soul or self which has escaped to reach it. For so, surely you will cast a light of gladness upon his onward journey, & contribute your part towards the building of that kingdom of love which links our earth to heaven.”
In 1967, gay Beat poet Allen Ginsburg interviewed Gavin Arthur (grandson of President Chester A. Arthur), a world traveler, adventurer, & later a San Francisco based astrologer, about his experience as a young man of 23 years old, visiting England & having sex with the 80 year old Carpenter. Carpenter told Arthur of his own sexual experience, as a 33 year old man, with the 58 year old Walt Whitman. When the young Arthur asked how Whitman ranked as a lover, Carpenter replied: “I will show you.” The account of their night together is very sweet.
This means I am 6 Degrees Of Separation from Walt Whitman:
Whitman slept with Edward Carpenter
Edward Carpenter slept with Gavin Arthur
Gavin Arthur slept with Neal Cassady
Neal Cassady slept with Allen Ginsberg
Allen Ginsberg slept with James Dean
James Dean slept with a Certain Oscar Nominated, Tony Winning Producer
Stephen Rutledge slept with a Certain Oscar Nominated, Tony Winning Producer
It is quite remarkable that Carpenter managed to avoid any public scandal or disgrace like his friend Oscar Wilde at that time. Although Carpenter made no secret of his long relationship with Merrill, he remained discreet & the couple lived in isolation in the beautiful English countryside. His controversial books avoided prosecution despite having been investigated by the morals police many times. Good karma was on Carpenter’s side.
If you want to know more, & you really should, I highly recommend Edward Carpenter: A Life Of Liberty & Love (2009) by Sheila Rowbotham.
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Agree or not, according to Paper thinks you should know these five queens. (It’s not insignificant that three of the five are Drag Race Alumni);
Way before Divine‘s explosive Pink Flamingos performance or RuPaul‘s meteoric rise. It’s only fitting that the town, despite its size, remains one of the most significant drag communities around with both resident performers and reality superstars paying tribute to the Ptown’s vibrant scene. Below, Paper highlights five such queens you need to know. (…but probably already do)
1. Dina Martina – Ptown’s reigning resident Queen, Dina Martina has been performing for over 10 years at the Crown and Anchor and has a loyal and loving fan base. With her signature oversize lips, Martina hits that special spot between hysterical and horrifying — not unlike a drag version of Mimi from the Drew Carey Show. Watch and you’ll see.
2. BenDeLaCreme – Best known for her appearance in Season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race, her show Terminally Delightful is running through August at the Crown and Anchor. Despite winning the Miss Congeniality title on Drag Race, she was booted off earlier than many would have hoped — but at least the experience has provided fodder for her show.
3. Jinkx Monsoon – The season 5 winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race is performing in two shows at The Art House: a one-woman act called The Inevitable Concert, and Return to Grey Gardens co-starring Peaches Christ. Jinkx is a singer and performer through and through, prior to the her work on Drag Race she starred in a Portland=based production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
4. Varla Jean Merman – With perhaps the most diverse credits among the group, including roles on Ugly Betty, Project Runway, and All My Children, Varla Jean is legendary in Ptown and is also doing double duty as both a performer in Designing Women Meets the Golden Girls and her own show, Varla Jean Merman’s Big Black Hole.
5. Bianca Del Rio – The bitingly funny winner of season 6 of RuPaul’s Drag Race is performing her acclaimed show, Rolodex of Hate, at the Art House from Aug. 10th through Sept. 4th. Bianca was a standout on the show for her wit and insultability, both of which will be in full force during her show. The run in Provincetown is also part of a nationwide tour that started back in January and ends in Portland in September.
There are many more that are ruling these days, for sure. Paper has a whole section on P-Town. Check it out here. (via Paper)
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Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans ten years ago this month and Brad Pitt is celebrating. He’s been working to rebuild destroyed houses in the hard-hit Lower Ninth Ward since the hurricane left its path of destruction. He told the New Orleans Times-Picayune;
“We went into it incredibly naïve, just thinking ‘we can build homes – how hard is that?'”
A LOT harder than he thought, it turns out. But that didn’t stop him, his foundation Make It Right, or the residents from plugging along. Now, 109 colorful, well-built, ecofriendly homes dot the area that a decade ago was reduced to rubble, mud and debris and wrecked lives. As a part-time NOLA resident and architecture buff, Pitt wanted his foundation to build homes that not only suited the residents’ needs, but were well-designed and not only cheap(er) to make, but to live in.
“I get this well of pride when I see this little oasis of color and the solar panels. I drive into the neighborhood and I see people on their porch, and I ask them how is their house treating them? And they say, ‘Good.’ And I say what’s your utility bill? And they’ll throw something out like, ’24 bucks’ or something, and I feel fantastic.”
Some of the world’s best architects, including Shigeru Ban, Thom Mayne, and even Frank Gehry, designed some of the futuristic homes at Pitt’s urging. The area has now become one of New Orleans’ tourist attractions but it wasn’t easy getting to this point. Pitt says that he had no concept of the bureaucratic snags he would have to hurdle. But he was determined to make the homes aesthetically pleasing too and allow the residents to give their input. THEY were the ones who would be living there.
“The inhabitants, the families are the ones who designed the neighborhood. They had choices in front of them. They picked the houses to suit their needs. They picked the colors.
You do not have to build low-income housing with the cheapest materials that keep families in a poverty trap. Whether that be running up high utility bills or with toxic materials that run up your doctor bills. It doesn’t have to be that way.”
It’s nice to hear the good news once in a while, isn’t it?
(via Daily Mail)
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