Copenhagen
December 1, 2007
World AIDS Day is December 1st every year, and no one shows their solidarity and fight for the cause like the great Danes. Peaceful demonstrations, free condoms, marches, benefit parties, and memorial ceremonies decorate the town as the city commemorates the international day of action against HIV and AIDS. http://www.aidsfondet.dk/
Rome
December 7-14, 2007
For five years and counting, the Leather Club Roma hosts the hottest leather-fetish event in Italy, grimly titled Catacombs. What happens when you take Folsom Street Fair and relocate it to one of Europe’s most beautiful cities (filled with some of the world’s most beautiful men)? Apparently you get seven days of bull whips, ball gags, and nonstop sex. “Perhaps the crown jewel of the theme parties, spread throughout the long weekend, is the Black Leather Uniform Fans party. Strict dress codes apply: black leather only.” Wearing a uniform never felt so freeing. http://www.lcroma.com/catacombs.htm
Rome
December 7-14, 2007
For five years and counting, the Leather Club Roma hosts the hottest leather-fetish event in Italy, grimly titled Catacombs. What happens when you take Folsom Street Fair and relocate it to one of Europe’s most beautiful cities (filled with some of the world’s most beautiful men)? Apparently you get seven days of bull whips, ball gags, and nonstop sex. “Perhaps the crown jewel of the theme parties, spread throughout the long weekend, is the Black Leather Uniform Fans party. Strict dress codes apply: black leather only.” Wearing a uniform never felt so freeing. http://www.lcroma.com/catacombs.htm
Rome
December 7-14, 2007
For five years and counting, the Leather Club Roma hosts the hottest leather-fetish event in Italy, grimly titled Catacombs. What happens when you take Folsom Street Fair and relocate it to one of Europe’s most beautiful cities (filled with some of the world’s most beautiful men)? Apparently you get seven days of bull whips, ball gags, and nonstop sex. “Perhaps the crown jewel of the theme parties, spread throughout the long weekend, is the Black Leather Uniform Fans party. Strict dress codes apply: black leather only.” Wearing a uniform never felt so freeing. http://www.lcroma.com/catacombs.htm
Berlin
December 7-9, 2007
Show off your ink with the world’s most well-drawn at this three-day world-renowned convention. The marathon of sensory-overload includes contests, tattoo showings, inking and piercing sessions, and a stage program with entertainment, magic, acrobats, and even snake charmers. Evidently, the freaks come out in December. When in Berlin, do as the Berliners do and you might just walk away branded. http://www.tattoo-convention.de
London
December 16, 2007
London’s most out-of-control tea dance party celebrates the birth of Christ through raunchy disco, classics and punk funk, all in the name of a horse’s erection. Every Sunday South London goes berserk at Horse Meat Disco. Ditch your office party for this sausage-fest and find something sizable to stuff in a stocking! With drink giveaways and free swag, trade in your usual horse for a reindeer, throw some bells on and jingle all the way to a stranger’s bed. http://www.horsemeatdisco.co.uk
Letterman Digital Arts Center Premiere Theater
San Francisco
December 8, 7PM
After closing out his “death trilogy” with Last Days, the critically polarizing Van Sant heads in a new direction with Paranoid Park. A dreamlike portrait of teen alienation and presented as a Super-8 diary by the central adolescent character, the film won the 60th Anniversary Award at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. This is your chance to see it before its U.S. release, and the director himself is expected to appear at the screening. $15. Tickets available here.
The Stud
9th & Harrison
San Francisco
Saturdays 10PM – 4AM
The sloppiest kids in town are colonizing the Stud for this new Saturday party, featuring drink specials for exhibitionists, live whipped-cream wrestling and Frat House DJ Kidd Sysko.
Star Lounge
Chelsea Hotel Basement
222 W 23rd Street
New York
Fridays 10PM – 4AM
It’s a fun scene and it won an HX Award for Best Small Club Night. So come back to Chelsea for some red velvet-and- chandelier-style glamour, brought to you by Josh Wood (Garden of ONO), Matt Tratner and Nick Van Bremen, with DJ Lina.
Porn director-turned- private investigator Paul Barresi
claims that he’s found no evidence of Tom Cruise’s rumored homosexuality, despite
the connection to Scientology, a gay vague haircut and a seemingly endless
stream of court-challenged claims by former lovers, according to In Touch Weekly. “Everything I’ve
found and everything I know points to Tom being heterosexual,” Paul told
the magazine. Oddly, it was only a year ago that Barresi was in the
opposite situation – facing legal threats from Cruise’s celebrity legal
eagle, Bert Fields, to remove a claim by Barresi that he had found evidence of the star’s sexcapades with a
We have no interest at the moment in confirming the validity of Today’s Most Popular Gay Rumor Involving a Possibly Closeted Congressional Republican, and would prefer simply to revel in the delicious, drama-promising, unconfirmed glory of it all. The blog BigHeadDC attempted to break the story yesterday, following Trent Lott’s abrupt resignation announcement and based on some truly slippery email correspondence with obviously attention-loving gay escort-cum-blogger Benjamin Nicholas. The rumor has already been denounced by the HuffPo, spat upon by Wonkette, re-attributed to Gawker and slipperily denied by Nicholas himself, but that doesn’t make it untrue (as Dan Savage has been quick to note).
When RSVP Vacations, the other gay cruise company, got sold to Atlantis Events this past fall, fans of the gay cruise experience blogged and commented on the demise of RSVP and how this consolidation will affect their sarong party plans on next year’s Caribbean Fantasy. We didn’t have the stomach to go on one ourselves, but we did spend a good chunk of one afternoon poking fun at nauseating YouTube photo montages and gouge-your-eyes-out horrific and suicide-grade-boring photo sets of both. While we’ve been told repeatedly that Atlantis was the floating
bathhouse and RSVP was the queeny piano-bar-on-the-sea, we didn’t see
much difference in the people we talked to.
What flavored balm goes on smooth and keeps the mustiest puckers fresh as a teenager? If you answered Anal-Ese, well, son, you’re one hell of a
professional. Today as part of our Worst Products Marketed to the Gays series, we feature this desensitizing agent long used on porn sets to keep the loosest goose from squealing after a three-hour Arpad-Miklos pounding. Generally, the benzocaine confection has been marketed to women trying to get over the hump, so to speak. As gays scoop up more products marketed to women (Special K, Juicy Couture, Enchanted), it gets harder to believe that any woman (or alternately, the man who wants to pop her in the pooper) is gonna care that her thumping hole is flavored like a maraschino. Of course, we’re not really sure that a guy who’s numbing himself for a three-day party is at the top of our menu, either… but we digress.
440 Castro
San Francisco
Wednesdays
Come get it on at the Bar Formerly Known as Daddy’s with a truckload of straight-acting twinks and the gayer gays who love them.
What’s the difference between a fag and a freezer?
Cologne (Koln)
Germany
November 20-25
In the States the bears have pride fests all over: in Provincetown, in Chicago, in San Francisco with the Hairrison Street Fair and they’ll always have Guerneville…
9th Avenue Bistro
693 9th Ave/48th
New York
Wednesdays 9PM – 11PM
NYC porn stars and others who happen to be passing through town between penetrations…
HK Lounge
523 9th Ave @ 39th
New York
Thursdays
HK Lounge is still coming into its own, but Hell’s Kitchen is where it’s at…
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge
133 Turk Street
Thursdays, 10PM – 2AM
Aunt Charlie’s is one of our favorite bars of all time. The carpet probably hasn’t been replaced since the mid-70s…
Aunt Charlie’s Lounge
Tenderloin
The carpet probably hasn’t been replaced since the mid-70s, there’s one of those flammable-stuffed-animal crane games up front, and Anthony the toothless bartender is the sweetest thing to happen to the Tenderloin since the advent of crack. Don’t miss the Hot Boxxx Girls, Fri-Sat 10 PM.
Ginger’s Trois
Downtown
Though Damron Guides cite a “professional crowd” and a recent makeover and change of ownership has brightened up the inside a bit, our experience of Ginger’s leans more toward wheelchairs and Cutty Sark neat on a Tuesday afternoon. Not exactly a late-night destination, but a good bet for a gayische happy hour crowd replete with bobo financiers and retail queens.
Hole in the Wall Saloon
SOMA
Expect a selection of leather daddies and pool-hustling cubs at this Harley-friendly dive recently relocated to Folsom Street. It opens at noon and it’s about bottled beer and hankies around here, so don’t even think about ordering a fucking Cosmo. Also, the occasional patron craps outside the door for our viewing pleasure.
Gangway
Polk Gulch
841 Larkin Street
The bandana’d and rolled-jeans bicycle crew takes the place over twice a month at Chrome and Manquake, but most nights the Gangway is the sort place where old guys have slurred shout-fights about the names of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands and who got more tail during the war.
The Men’s Room
Castro
3988 18th Street
It’s a bit like a ski lodge in this tiny joint on 18th, complete with 60s canister fireplace in the back corner, and it’s perfect for a weeknight birthday because you and your friends can basically take over the place and own the jukebox, which isn’t half bad. Also, a nice escape from the usual shitshow up the street on a Saturday night–the kind of place you can watch a closed-captioned PBS on Broadway special while sipping some Scotch and working through a breakup.
Easternbloc
505 E. 6th Street
The music’s good, the boys are hip, the bartenders are cute and it’s the kind of non-BnT, come-as-you-are booze fest Manhattan needs more of. But we admit we also love it partly because of fond memories the old, seedy Wonder Bar at the same address, with the blackout back room and $2 beers and John Waters movies and projected on the back wall. Check out Bloc Party on Fridays.
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The Ritz
This swank new midtown space with outdoor patios and a nautical theme got voted Best New Venue by HX in 2007, and has enough parties going on that it’ll keep you oscillating between buzzed and hungover through your entire work week.
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HK Lounge
523 9th Avenue
HK Lounge just is still coming into its own, but Hell’s Kitchen is where it’s at and the space is airy and well designed. The boys tend to be cute, the music more hip than not, and the crowd a mix of professionals and performers from the neighborhood. If you’re in the ‘hood on Thursdays and you’re not swilling late-night happy hour drinks at Barrage, check out Buzz.
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The Cock
29 2nd Avenue
The East Village was ahead of the curve in bringing sleaze back to gay life in the late 90s, and the Cock was at the forefront of that movement. Then the place got more popular and moved to the Hole, but it’s still a really easy answer to the question “where can I get drunk and laid with the most efficiency tonight in Manhattan?” Check out Cock Fight on Saturdays.
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The Bar on Castro
456 Castro Street
San Francisco
Every Wednesday, 9PM – 2AM
At a time when gay nightlife in SF has reached a particularly low ebb-tide, Juanita MORE! and the MOREboys can always be counted on to bring out the cuties and cool kids at this mid-week dance party.
Oscars, Rio Cuale
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
November 21-26
In case you’re closer to Puerto Vallarta than you are to Miami, and if you like your men with a little more Latin in their blood then you may want to opt for this other White Party over the Thanksgiving weekend. Gays don’t have families, right? Who gives a fuck about Thanksgiving? Tis the season for getting freaky with your bois and jumping up and down to some house music, dude. DJs Cary Stringfellow (LA), Oscar Velazquez, and Ramses will be joined by drag diva Lady Bunny and international club diva Sofonda Fox. http://www.willgorges.com/
Bangkok, Thailand
November 3-11
Unlike the decadent and enormous fag fests we’re used to in our more cosmopolitan Blue States, places like Bangkok are still ringing in Pride for political reasons. If you’re in the neighborhood, check out how proud the tranny hookers and dykes and ladyboys of Bangkok can be, complete with elaborate gold crowns and reluctant police protection. http://www.pridefestival.org/
New Delhi, India
TBA
Tom Ford gets around, and so does the label that made him famous. Gucci recently opened their first India boutique in Mumbai, and is slated to open their second in New Delhi by year’s end. Expect the recently wealthy technocrats of New Delhi to embrace the expensive fashions, but we’re not sure how well the leather goods will go over with the Hindus.
Various Venues
Cologne, Germany
November 20-25
In the States the bears have pride fests all over: in Provincetown, in Chicago, in San Francisco with the Hairrison Street Fair, and they’ll always have Guerneville. Each November in Germany, the hairier Deutsches head to Cologne for Bartmanner Koln to revel in each others’ non-conformist, unpretty, oftimes smelly, beer-loving ways. This year’s fest includes a Butch & Bear Disco Night and a poster modeled after Rocky Horror, renamed the Hairy Horror Picture Show. More info at www.bearscologne.de
Various Venues
Paris, France
November 13-20
This fest has been around since 1994, showcasing independent films by and for a European lesbigay audience, many of which never find wide distribution. The opening film this year, “XXY” by Lucia Puenzo, was an official selection at Cannes, and the closing film is called “Le Roi et le Clown” which sounds like a real winner in our book.
Villa Vizcaya
Miami, FL
November 21-26
Begun as a fundraiser for an HIV/AIDS service organization in 1985, the White Party has become a ginormous dance party at a huge estate called the Villa Vizcaya in Miami Beach. Expect the usual tweakers and a lot of Eurofags in white jeans, but also expect drag queens on stilts with white wings, faggots in feathers, and lots and lots of opportunities for groping pecs and having unsafe sex. As well as safe sex, of course. http://www.whiteparty.org/
Plaza de Mayo
Buenos Aires, Argentina
November 17
Don’t cry for her, and don’t keep your distance. The kickoff of gay summer in Argentina is the Pride festival in Buenos Aires, arguably the gay mecca of South America and the spiritual home of all die-hard Patti Lupone fans. This year Buenos Aires got even gayer with the Gay World Cup happening here in September. Check out the parade at 6 p.m. on Saturday November 17th, with MCs Daisy May Queen and Osvaldo Bazan. And don’t forget that with the U.S. dollar in the toilet, Argentina is one of the only places you can still drink cheaply. http://www.marchadelorgullo.org.ar/
Various Venues
Montreal, Canada
November 15-25
It’s cold in Montreal in November, and possibly snowy, but if you’re in that neck of the woods and want a sampling of homo cinema, check out this film fest dubbed “Image + Nation.” The festival is opening this year with a Spanish entry called “Reinas” (“Queens”) by Manuel Gomez Pereira and starring two Almodovar faithfuls, Carmen Maura and Marisa Paredes. Check out the website for more info. www.image-nation.org
We realize that MSNBC is desperate for “quirky news” items to break up the monotony of stock market reports and
While We Enjoy a Good Spooning… (Guest of a Guest)
Cuddle My World (MSNBC via Newsweek)
OUT Magazine may have divorced itself corporately from its not-fit-for-the-gay-coffee-table Liberation Publications siblings (Men, Freshmen, Unzipped), but that doesn’t mean it’s given up the skin-mag ghost. In the November issue, celebrity chest-hair-sporter Tom Ford unbuttoned more than just his shirt, appearing buck naked in a photo shoot with two actual models.
Full ass shot after the jump…
The mustachioed granddaddy of back-alley fag enhancers, “poppers” is the name given to any number of alkyl or amyl nitrates found these days in little bottles labeled as “room odorisor” or “VCR head cleaner” with brand names like “Rush” and “BANG!!” and “Jungle Juice.” The drug was originally a treatment for angina, and got its street name from being sold in small glass ampules that made a popping sound when they were crushed to release their vapors. Once blamed for the ‘gay virus’ that appeared in 1981 (they now think that was something else), poppers are still said to cause temporary weakening of the immune system. After the jump, our complete field guide.
The Transfer
198 Church Street
San Francisco
Tuesdays 9PM to 2AM
Though we do love Trannyshack, the place has its off-weeks. Try the Transfer as an alternative…
Why do closeted homo Republicans always look like unhappy rabbits? Probably because they are closeted and Republican.
Homosexual blogger Andy Towle has revealed that the Cody Castagna, the 26-year-old hustler that Spokane-based Congressman Rep. Richard Curtis may or may not have slept with, starred in at least one bareback porno for Treasure Island, and can also be found on a certain members-only gay pic-post site.
Bar on Castro
456 Castro Street
San Francisco
Mondays, 8PM – 2AM
When you offer 80-cent well drinks, expect the kids to show up in droves, even if it is a Monday night.
Hiro Ballroom
363 W 16th Street
New York
Sundays 9PM – 4AM
It’s getting a little bit mobbed after midnight at this weekly fete, but given that Sundays are for drinking …
The Cock
29 2nd Ave
New York
Every Saturday
The East Village was ahead of the curve in bringing the dirtiness back to gay life in the late 90s