Lyin’, & Twinks, & Bears–Oh My!
By Steve Prince
“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.
Between Men: Best New Gay Fiction
Review by Shaun Frisky
Photos by Kurt / Bonescribe
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.
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.
Thanks once again to Kurt for the wonderful photos that go along with this post. See more of his work here. Buy Brendan Wolf at Amazon.
Here’s former Sean Cody star Ajay (aka Aaron Savvy, and he also goes by the name Chris Stevulak) undressing one last time for a New Orleans festival poster on Ben Patrick Johnson’s show. Ajay gets painted in pride colours by reknown body painter Filippo Ioco.
In light of Paris’s release and subsequent re-imprisonment (YAY!), check out the art of Terry Rogers, who paints incredible scenes of vice and drunken debauchery. His upper-class Britney-esque characters look happy, beautiful, carefree, yet empty.
(via Sticky via Kevin1217)
Hey guys!! This is Captain D (aka Editor D when I’m outta those stretchy spandex) speaking! We felt it was high time we revealed the boys behind the site, and being the guy who started it all, I was first in line… to spread my legs so to speak. LOL. I hope you like that pose. We thought we might as well throw in a bulge and test that spandex out. Heh. And oh, Maskurbate, if you should ever find yourself lacking in models, please drop me a missive. We may have what you’re looking for. *Ahem*
I’m back from what I consider an extended vacation recently. A boy’s gotta recharge those fluids you know? And by that I meant the creative ones. I’d like to thank the team for holding the forte during my absence. I’m eager to unload (ideas)!!
I shan’t reveal the special powers that I have and hopefully you’ll get a taste of them when we start our very own QComic Strip (and Bare)!
Look out for the other Superheroes that we’ll be introducing. We’re busy having new costumes made. And that includes one for Toby.
Be good, and thanks for all the support thrown our way. We love ya!
Reviewed by Shaun Frisky Patrick Ryan’s prose are so damn sexy it makes you want to glide your tongue along the spine of the book. The words cascade together in an excited stream to form a richly textured portrait of a complex family over 40 years. Almost every section is a snapshot in the life of one of the family members exploring his or her perspective, zigzagging through their history to contrast the past against the present. Ryan evokes the emotions of each of these characters with such sensitivity you’d think their experiences were his own.
One of the sons in the family, Frankie, is a trickster causing each of the family members to look at their lives in a different way. He’s unashamedly gay, quite casually declaring his crush on Luke Skywalker at a young age. Later in college he has outrageous sexual experiences while his inhibited (closeted) brother Joseph makes a muddled attempt at cruising in a public bathroom. The painful sense of discomfort Joseph has in expressing his sexuality is drawn sharply against Frankie’s (ultimately-dangerous) free attitude towards manly lovin’. Frankie is a fantasist and it seems very apt that he’s obsessed with extra-terrestrial experience as it feels like he’s not quite of this world. You’d think such an oddball wouldn’t be able to maintain a compatible relationship with the gentle-natured mother he ultimately returns to, but the bond between the two is demonstrated in a heart-breaking final scene. This is essential reading for all gay men who have trouble connecting with their family sometimes, which I’m guessing is almost all of us! It’s highly recommended that you read this book aloud while in bed with your lover in between bouts of Luke Skywalker/Hans Solo role play.
Thanks again to Kurt for the fab photos. See more of his work here. Buy Send Me at Amazon.
The Dutch are known for their liberal and ‘open’ mind regarding sex. Their government bought this huge Gnome with a large sex toy in his hand from the American artist Paul McCarthy.
This garden gnome, popularly termed ‘Kabouter Buttplug’ (The Butt Plug Gnome), according to the artist, Paul McCarthy, represents a criticism on Western consumerism or the hypocrisy of western civilization. So is it a gnome? It’s not! It’s actually representation of Santa Claus holding a giant anal dildo in his right hand as a Christmas tree and in his left Father Christmas’s traditional bell. You could interpret the work as: “Father Christmas, up your ass!” Here, the butt plug is a symbol with the force and charge of a stretched middle finger.
We want a miniature one in our garden!
Reviewed by Shaun Frisky
Let’s face it. Men in fur are sexy. Among the many treasures to be found within Skin Lane is a ravishing young straight man, aptly named Beauty, wearing a fur coat and driving the book’s protagonist to the brink of insanity with lust. This is a book which fearlessly unlocks the forbidden door of Bluebeard’s castle, exposing the sometimes sinister mechanisms of queer desire. After reading through the entire book during a few long late nights in bed with a naked man at my side, I was hungry to see the writer himself. It’s not often that when going to see a superstar of the stage and page like Neil Bartlett read from his new book that you are greeted at the door by the author himself and offered a glass of wine. I swear he was trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me!
At Gay’s the Word bookshop in London Neil gave his reading to a rapt audience tightly packed in between the shelves throbbing with queer titles. Of course, given his work with the theatre, Neil was a natural performer delivering a few sweet samples from the text. Afterwards he discussed the investigative journey writing this tense novel led him on. Mr F, the character at the center of the book, leads a tightly controlled life as a fur cutter. During the summer of 1967 he finds his ordered existence disrupted by a disturbing recurring dream where he discovers a naked male body strung up in his bathroom. After being frightened by it at first, he grows more and more curious and attached to it. Mr F searches throughout the novel to discover who the body belongs to and Bartlett says that this gave him an impetus to finish the book because he didn’t know what the ending would be himself. The result is a very literary thriller which wriggles through all the seedy dark corners of one gay man’s sexual imagination.
Skin Lane manages to successfully encapsulate how the urge to fuck can overwhelm a man’s life when continuously pushed to the back of his mind. It also charts the tragic path we all must travel from the figure of youthful beauty to the aged beast with his pernicious sexual obsessions. Desire makes gay men covet the handsome, young man’s body turning it into an object we not only want to lick, stroke and penetrate, but actually possess for our own. Perhaps the most nail-biting aspect to this thriller is the degree to which you might relate to Mr F yourself. I’m sorry to report that after trying to get me tipsy Neil didn’t sternly order me to get into the car with a beast-like growl, but I was satisfied with the mental hard-on his novel gave me. I only hope that we don’t have to wait another decade for Neil’s next book.
Many thanks and kisses to Kurt for the original photographs shot for this review. See more of his work here. Get your copy of Skin Lane here.
