Thump! My glass of water fell on my rug and soaked the floor. Damn. Why didn't I drink that water before I went to bed? I probably wouldn't feel so hung over now if I had. I turned to look at my clock. It's almost noon. Wow. I guess last night was a late night; I never sleep this late normally.
By instinct I reach over and grab my phone to check the text messages. I hate texting. I really do. Hold on. Let me find my soapbox...Ahem.
The problem with texting is that inflection and the intention of what was said isn't there. For the gay man who already second guesses himself all the time (I'm raising my hand right now) texting is not a tool--it's a second guessing death trap. Dating is nothing but second guessing already, but combined with texting it makes a fella feel like he's third and forth guessing. A simply "sure" as a response to lunch can mean many things. Sure, I would love to have a meal with you. Sure, I would like to get to know you better. Sure, I'll go because I have nothing else better to do. Sure, but I'd rather just sit on your face. Sure, this way I can find out where you live and stalk you.
DO WE SEE THE DANGER OF TEXTING PEOPLE???!!! Texting is the problem; I'm certain it has NOTHING to do with my own insecurities. Nope, not a bit. Okay back to my morning--well afternoon by now.
QCArts features the work of hot, up-and-coming artists.
Aron Ridge's muscular, milk chocolate body, bubble ass, and pendulous member makes mouths water. This sexually-charged photo set from Béla Dornon Studios shows him as captive and captor-- those leather boots and metal chains on that hard, 6'3", 231 lb. body with its langorous 10-inch dick make us squirm with desire.
A generous, quiet, and highly talented musician, Aron lives in LA and has starred in a few films such as "Hot House Backroom Volume 6" and "Black Meat, White Heat." He's a hardworking stud from America's heartland and if you look closely, you can see the letter "A" scarred onto his left pectoral and shoulder.
For more, check out this video of him teasing you by flexing in a hot tub in a tight blue speedo:
Here's another of him flexing and showing some pubes in a tight red pair:
And if you just can't get enough, check out a gallery of this hunk in different stages of undress and an interview with Falcon's Justin Jameson with some shots of Aron Ridge in a hot poolside suck scene.
Summer is here, and Steve Prince is a queer in need of a vacation and good cheer.
I love living in Los Angeles in the summer. Everything is beautiful and accessible here. There's the beach, the mountains, The Getty, Griffith Park, patio bars in West Hollywood, and beautiful men of all types abound. I mean it does get a bit warm in the summer--all right, it can be hotter than Matt Summers spread eagle on a school desk. Oh and I guess there's traffic, but there's ALWAYS traffic. It's just a fact that when driving in LA you'll be sandwiched on a freeway for several hours with strangers. And of course with all these people, who can get any place in a reasonable time? So what if I have to get up two hours earlier so I can get to my job on time. My job where my boss keeps me on pins and needles, and every day a little piece of my soul is swallowed up in a hellmouth of work...OH MY GOD I HAVE TO GET OUT OF THIS SHITTY ASS DIRTY, CROWDED CITY BEFORE I DIE!!!!!
Mega-stud Francois Sagat stars in a hot new photo series entitled "Muse" by Exterface. The two 23-year-old artists behind Exterface do excellent, homoerotic portraits that convey their performers' duality. QC has shown some of their work in the past.
"You had sex three times in one day, with three different people?" I choked on my Dr. Pepper.
"Well, what are you supposed to do?" Omar replied, "It's Palm Springs."
Omar and I had been good friends for a little over a year now but I have never even heard him mention Palm Springs.
"So this one cute Latin guy", Omar licked his lips and leaned forward; he loves the Latin men. "He met me on the way to the hot tub. And I told him that I needed to go to my room and change first."
"Uh-huh" I said. "Wow. That's not even subtle."
"I know," Omar giggled. "So, yeah, we basically just went to my room to fuck. Well apparently while I was gone his boyfriend came up to my friend who was still at the hot tub. His boyfriend was furious apparently. And I'm like, 'Come on! It's Palm Springs!'"
"So how old are you", he typed. "I'm not really into guys 25 or up."
"I'm 24".
24...24?...24!!!
I actually laughed when I typed it. I'm 29, which to ME isn't that old, but to a 21-year-old college guy -- it ain't young. I don't usually lie when I hookup with a guy, but you should have seen his picture...so cute.
Hey I can't be faulted. I had been stressed out at work and I just wanted a nice long blowjob. The kind you see Alan Gregory give...you know where the guy's dick is literally shining like a Christmas star because it has been made so wet by the other fella's mouth. Sigh. And Tyler wanted to give it to me, so there ya go. Yes his name was Tyler -- my nephew's name. I have no shame.
"I'll be there in 10 minutes," I type.
"Tight dude," he responds. "Call me when you're by the Student Union and I'll meet you."
Tight dude? I actually didn't know people still said that. I grabbed a hat as I ran out the door. Hats make me look younger. Oh God, what am I doing?
We would love to deny it, but too much porn makes all of us dull boys, and then the men just begin to look identical. To introduce breathers into your QC browsing experience, we're kicking off QColumn this week with "A Gay In The Life" by Steve Prince. This will be a weekly series which runs on every Friday. Stay tuned for other columns coming your way!
--------------------------------------
A Gay In The Life: The Birds & The Birds
By Steve Prince
"Felching? What does felching mean?" My friend Carrie looked at me like I had just spoken a different language. What? I was in the middle of a good story about one of our mutual gay friends and I was a bit surprised that she interrupted me.
"Sugar", I replied, my Southern drawl adding a few more syllables than necessary. "You mean to tell me you're thirty-four years old and you don't know what felching is?"
"No!" she smirked. "What is it?" I didn't want to say it too loud because we were in a small pizza restaurant, however Carrie is impatient as hell. Soon she was tugging on my sleeve like a little gay boy asking his mother if he can hold her purse while she tries on pretty shoes that Mommy will buy and then make you swear you won't tell Daddy about it when he gets home.
"Oh fine!" I exclaimed. In my annoyance I think I retorted a little too loudly. "Well for gay men, it's when a guy shoots his load up your ass, and then you cumfart it out on his face until his lips look like a fat girl who just binged on ring-dings."
At that moment several things happened at once. I will try to describe them to the best of my ability, but I make no promises. As with most moments of chaos, I find explaining the series of events from the beginning is best. Here goes...
We've talked about him before, but our jaws continually drop for the beautiful subject caught by Adam Bouska's camera lens. Discover this amazing work for yourself on his weblog - where this fashion and beauty photographer shares (and posts photos) of many of his experiences.
"I wanna be your mister," says Exterface in their latest series of photos entitled "Orchid." The French photographer duo Julien and Stéphane consider themselves more than photographers -- they create poetic pictures and small stories trough their art.
What better way to celebrate some the best gay writers today than by gathering them together for one big orgy? One of the most prominent, intelligent and handsome scholars of gay literature today, Richard Canning, has edited this collection of short stories. With two collections of interviews with prominent queer authors under his belt, he is the ideal person to mix and mingle these diverse, exciting and controversial writers. In his personal and clever introduction Canning writes about the tremendous span of subjects Between Men covers. It's impossible to describe everything this treasure trove contains so I'll point out some of my favourite moments, ones that have stuck in my mind well after finishing them.
Kevin Killian's "Greensleeves" describes a married man named Charlie taking a young male sub for the simple reason that he "needs a change." Their relationship becomes increasingly dependent and intense, especially with the erotic addition of his sub's gay younger brother, until his sexual experimentation shatters his normally ordered existence. However, this daring, even dangerous, story ends exquisitely like the softest of love ballads.
Patrick Ryan brings back Frankie, one of the most complex and vibrant characters from his first book Send Me (reviewed by Shaun Frisky earlier this year). In the story "Pretend I'm Here", Frankie is love struck by Clark Evans, a former astronaut still clinging to his glory days. His hero worship and sexual attraction to the man blind Frankie to the real reason Clark draws the young man close to him and his wife. When the truth of their intentions becomes clear, it is especially devastating because his innocent understanding of love is destroyed along with his belief in living heroes.
Vestal McIntyre is a part-time waiter in NYC and a full time writer. His first book, titled You Are Not the One, is one of the most exciting story collections published in recent years. His story included in this collection, "A Good Squeeze", introduces us to one of the most bizarre and elusive characters in the book. His narrator makes an observation about the boys' shower room in his school's dormitory that surely any gay man can relate to: "how many adult fantasies, nightmares, obsessions and neuroses were born in this shower room?" Later on in the story, a man the narrator encounters in a Canadian gay sauna makes a tremendously profound and cutting statement about the way gay values are aligning themselves with straight values. He asserts, "The destiny of gays is pointlessness, just as the destiny of straights is ugliness. Don't try to jump the track. It is better to be pointless and laugh."
"Marge" by Michael Lowenthal (boyfriend of the awesomely sexy writer Scott Heim) is a haunting story about a boy's interest and dangerous entanglement with his eccentric transvestite neighbour. Shaun Levin's sumptuous and erotically charged trans-continental story "The Big Fry-Up at the Crazy Hose Café" shows that vegetarian goddesses can provide the maternal influence in modern gay family life. David McConnell's outstanding story "Rivals" gives a refreshing twist to tales of adolescent sexual exploration and clued me into a fun new game which includes comparing scrotums. John Weir's heart-breaking honesty in his story "Neorealism at the Infiniplex" about a man dealing with his friend's death made me feel like someone had shaken me until my teeth rattled. Edmund White's "The Painted Boy" is a delicious taster about a boy prostitute explored more fully in his recently published monumental novel Hotel de Dream.
This collection obviously couldn't include every hot gay short story writer working today. There's a notable absence of the debonair Aaron Hamburger and the wild absurdist Drew Gummerson. However, this inventive and powerful collection manages to give an overview of the current landscape of gay literature. And what a bountiful amount of talent we have.
Joan Crisol is one of the biggest photographers in Spain (and Europe). His works are currently published in more than 20 magazines around the globe, including: Zero (half of the covers from 2006 and 2007), Rolling Stone (USA), Primera Línea, Kontack (Swiss), Interviu, Manner (Germany), Pirate, and Playboy. Joan uses the erotic universe as inspiration for all of his photos, as well as taking the best of his models, making them feel beautiful, erotic and desired. Even with a busy agenda, Joan had time to give QC Español an exclusive interview. Select portions have been translated below.
What inspires you?
I've always wanted to look at the hidden character that each one of us have inside. I'm a bit of psychologist, voyeur and sadomasochist. That makes me feel like the way to take out the nastiest things of each model. Let's not be hypocrites, we all love sex and we all love to feel sexy.
What is your relationship with the model you are working with?
My best feature is taking off the clothes of a person who has never been nude before. The results are a thousand times better, and you can see that the photos are a thousand times nastier than a hardcore porn. The most important thing is to make them feel like they are the most beautiful and sexiest person on the planet.
Edmund White has written numerous books including the classic gay coming of age novel - A Boy's Own Story and co-edited a book which charts the queer life and sexual geography of America - The Joy of Gay Sex. Now he offers a new highly revealing book CHAOS. The title novella details a man named Jack's burning need for raunchy cock stroking encounters and his endless quest to realize his sexual fantasies in reality. For this author, gay sex is the vibrant pulsing blood of life whether it can be found sucking off an ex-Mormon with a big dick or rimming a cop in training. Desire doesn’t become any uglier the older we get (though some dismiss it as such); it simply becomes less ashamed of itself. This rampant manly need causes a new set of difficulties in the character’s life as he ages, but it needs no more justification than it ever did. A passion for beauty and a taste for flesh comes naturally for a man like Jack.
White presents a snap-shot of life in New York City as it is today for a man out on the prowl. As this author loves to do in so much of his writing, CHAOS walks the fine line between fiction and autobiography teasingly letting you guess what parts are true and what is fantasy. Did he really pay a man to do THAT to him? The story plunges into the depths of despair and climbs the heights of ecstasy. Only a masterful writer can explore such a diverse terrain over so few pages. In addition to this novella, there’s a magical story contained in this book called “Record Time” which was first released in a beautiful marbled-cover limited edition by Enitharmon Press a few years back (if you were lucky enough to get a copy). This short story is about an adolescent boy trying to scrape together a sense of culture and greatness in his small town life. There's no doubt that when gays rule the earth in a thousand years time they'll look back and view Edmund White and his astoundingly insightful books on homo-life as the pillars upon which queer identity is built. CHAOS is an invigorating and thoughtful gem. Read it in a soapy warm bath while waiting for your man to come home.
(Thanks to Kurt for the sexy photos and look out for Kurt’s own poems published in the new book Ghost on the Highway!)
Meet QC's Guardian Angel of Sex! Another masterpiece by resident illustrator Ismael Alvarez. If you have any characters (cartoon/anime/celebs) you'd like to see rendered in similar strokes of beauty, let us know and the Angel might grant your wish.
Brendan Wolf is the kind of man that gives me a huge boner. He’s a complex mystery who likes to exercise his mind as much as his body. Amidst the quiet life he seeks with his daily push-ups and flipping through pages of Jack London, he finds himself embroiled in outrageous situations involving a rich lecherous old man, a fanatical group of pro-lifers, a scheming brother & his wife and a boyfriend blinded by his passion. Despite his flaws and delusions, Brendan emerges as a fully-fleshed gay man struggling to find his place in this messy world.
Brendan’s consciousness is split between the physical world and the fictional world. He imagines he can control the way people see him. He wears carefully constructed identity masks so certain people will view him as a grieving Christian widower or the attractive boyfriend who can be witty and charming at dinner parties filled with model gay couples. It seems that for every new person Brendan meets, he invents a new past and a new name for himself. The reader himself isn’t even allowed to know Brendan’s true name till late on in the book. The more Brendan tries to hide the man he essentially is the more chaotic his life becomes and the less connected he is with those he cares about most.
Detailing scathing critiques of both straight groups of religious fanatics and shallow gay groups of friends, this novel is a savage attack on insulated communities within our society while exploring the isolation of a complex and compelling individual. All this with a rip-roaring plot that will get your heart thumping as the illusive and incredibly sexy Brendan goes on the run from the police. This gives the book a fantastic momentum so that it feels like a train running faster and faster, always threatening to careen disastrously off the tracks. Brian Malloy has a powerfully creative mind and I’d love to spend a shirtless great-outdoors weekend with him and a thick book, bundled up together in a cozy lamp-lit tent.
