For some reason this annoys me. Last night on the MTV Video Awards, apparently Madonna, Britney and Christina did some slutty dance and then exchanged sultry open-mouthed kisses. This in itself doesn't bother me; though it was obviously done for shock value (all three are supposedly heterosexual, though I wonder about Aguilera).

What bothers me is comparing this to that was not allowed on the Bravo (they should change their name to the GAY4PAY Network) show Boy Meets Boy. Apparently all the suitors (and, I assume, James) had to sign agreements which included the restriction "No open-mouth kissing." I guess this was as much to protect the secret straights from the horror of another guy's tongue in their mouth as it was a concession to prudish censors. After all, BMB is heavily edited while these MTV awards show are usually live.

I say, screw 'em. If Dan and Franklin, etc. want the $25 grand they should work for it. Lukas Ridgeston sure does a lot more and probably gets paid less than that.

Last week during a slow period at work, my Marine (Ken, my assistant: 6'6" 23 year-old former Marine; I hired him for his technical skills... really!) found a website called theforce.net, which had all the amateur movies based on Star Wars. Our favorite by far is this lightsaber duel between these two guys. It's five minutes long, and not only are the effects great but the choreography is as good or better than in the movies, and they put in just the right amount of humor. If you have a broadband connection it is definitely worth the download! We have probably watched it a dozen times already. Ryan Wieber (who looks like he's in high school! And he can do this stuff on his Mac at home!) has his own website with a lot of other movies and clips and other stuff. The Episode II alternate ending is cute, if even to see an even younger Ryan tryng to be Count Dooku.

Jeez, the bitter queens on Datalounge even get snippy about Macs vs PCs! Of course, I think the PC people are just being defensive. ;-)

Oooh! Another hilarious BMB episode review: this time episode Four: "Wanna ride my pony?"

Finally! In the Advocate, the story 'straight' from the mouths of Reichen and Chip about the status of their relationship. And lots of stuff about them flirting with Jon!

Upon reviewing the Morning Show segment on Amazing Race... towards the end when Phil is talking and the camera pans back, Reichen puts his arm around Chip and then they do kiss, and they keep their arms around each other. But they are not wearing rings, so I guess the marriage is over.

One of the Boy Meets Boy guys got expelled from the Navy, though it sounds like he had planned it out--got Honorable and everything. But I like the part of the article about where the gay guys met with a psychiatrist because they were afraid they might 'go postal' when they find out about secret str8s in the group. If I were them I'd worry about James (or Andra)!

Reichen and Chip won the Amazing Race!

It was a little weird on the Morning Show today, though: Chip and Kelly, who seemed to hate each other during the race, kept holding hands and talking. Chip gave her more attention than his 'spouse' Reichen. This would only seem to fuel speculation that R & C are no longer 'married.'

Hah! All eight of the other Justices in Alabama have overruled that religious crackpot!

Ooooh! The new Teaser Posters for the Return of the King are very dramatic.

Check out these pictures from some West Hollywood birthday party attended by Lance Bass (Lance honey, just come out already!), and rom Boy Meets Boy: Andra, James, Brian and Dan!

I'm not sure what to make of this: the four of them posing together. James looks great though. ;-)

This grandstanding judge in Alabama makes my blood boil. He knew that sticking the ten commandments in the courthouse rotunda was wrong from the beginning; why else did he have it installed in the middle of the night? He's lost every appeal.

He's being bankrolled by some evangelical tv ministry in Florida, Coral something. He's embarassing the Attorney General and the other judges. Somebody needs to stand up to him. I just hate all the publicity he is getting.

Oh god oh god oh god.

I watched part four of Boy Meets Boy again. James is CRYING at the end of the selections, poor kid. Poor Robb, poor Darren. I�d date either of them, though Darren wasn�t exactly gorgeous. Robb had the greatest sense of humor.

And after watching it again, I�m doubting my conviction that Franklin is straight. Wes, or even Brian COULD be, though Wes was very much the girl in the kitchen.

But let us review what James says to Andra after his limo ride with Franklin: �My instincts are �you�re incredible, I want this� but part of me is saying �you�re lying.�� Since we see a heavily edited version of events, we need to trust what we hear from James and Andra�s gaydar (they have done pretty well before). Franklin is pretty forthright in the car but it does sound kind of cold and rehearsed. On the other hand, when he read the note from (I assume) Darren, he seems genuinely touched. Unlike Dan, I think Franklin is feeling kind of bad about the deception. Though in an article I found, supposedly Dan felt bad about Brian having a crush on him, to the point of going to the producers� and what did that mean? Did it shuffle the pairings? Must check� And I guess that means I should not doubt Brian�s gayness.

Of course, Dani COULD be LYING to James for the benefit of the audience. Maybe there are no straights left!

Which brings me to the �twist.� I love James� reaction� totally stone-faced. Then he cocks his head and smiles this evil smile and says �Wow� in almost a self-parody. But all of it combined sends this very clear message, that he is actually saying: �You F**KERS!�

And now I have to admit that I think I understand why this show is so riveting at least for me (and a lot of other gay men) even if it is also rather cruel to James and Andra: it�s that play along with �who is gay and who is straight� game that all gay men play every day of their lives. Not a day goes by that I don�t look at a guy and wonder if he might be gay, and talk to a friend about someone we see and try to guess if he is gay. And of course our gaydar is often infected with 'gay-wish' (I wish he was gay... just like a lot of use feel about Franklin. He's so hot, so butch... we want him to be gay even though the signs are there that he isn't). It�s part game and part trying to find a 'mate' in a world where most people are straight or pretend to be straight.

I don�t totally buy into the �turn things around and make the straight guys live in a gay world� premise argument put forth by the producers (the chief among them supposedly gay) but I give them props for creating a show I can�t stop watching, because I want to know how good my gaydar is.

Now, they could have warned J and A in advance that some of the guys were straight, but that would have put them much more on their guard, and they would know that there was a �game� going on, while in this case for most of the show they actually believed that the guys were looking for a boyfriend/connection/whatever. So I can see for dramatic reasons why they did not tell.

A hilarious summary of BMB episode two. I assume the others are in here somewhere... (can you tell its slow at work today?) Oh, HERE is the main link.

Here's an article where James tells how he felt after they told him one of the remaining guys was straight...

Queer Eye has become an entertaining bit of innocent fluff for me, while Boy Meets Boy is a full-out obsession.

So I was wrong about Darren! But I was right about Sean. As the episode progressed they did make it increasingly clear that Darren was gay (the secret note!? Oh my! Guess he's a writer and not a talker). And there was a kiss, while they made it clear how awkward the date with Sean was. (He still just creeps me out.)

I got the other pairings switched but they put Sean and Franklin together to salvage one last straight guy (that's assuming they aren't lying and there are TWO straight guys left!). There's little doubt left in my mind that Franklin is str8. And in the end James picked the other two I expected: Wes and Brian.

And they didn't tell James until AFTER this episode's selections about the 'final twist.' His reaction (or lack of it) was priceless. He sits there absolutely stone still, the smiles this hateful little smile and says "Wow." He's FURIOUS. This after, earlier in the episode we see him wondering to Andra if some of the guys are playing a game, and sayig if they are he would feel so humiliated. I find his suspicion a little odd, since as far as he knows, they are all gay and just competing for his affection and a trip to New Zealand. Not very high stakes. But for some reason, he is beginning to smell a rat. I guess you would have to wonder...

Andra's reaction was quite the opposite, and the scene was interesting too. She leaps up, shrieks "That's bullshit, James!" and runs from the room! What's wild is that in the flash of her running out, you see not one but TWO camera people (looked like a woman at the far end of the couch and a man standing in the background). It made me think about how everything must normally be carefully staged to keep the camera people out of sight. Once on QE there was a glimpse of one, and never before on BMB. Andra must have really flipped out, and of course they wanted to include that and had no choice but to keep the camera people in.

Now I wonder: What ELSE does Dani tell James? For instance, does she tell him the other gays don't know about the str8s? Who was str8 who has been kicked off? The prize money? (Why ELSE would a bunch of str8 guys do this?).

So now we are left with three (I wonder if there were 2 str8's left if there would have been another elimination? After all, there are TWO episodes left. But now with just Franklin they can't afford to lose the last ringer.). It has got to be obvious to James that Franklin is the str8 one, but now he is forced to play along for what, two more days. But it looks like--from that clip they keep taunting us with where Wes says "You assumed I was gay; WHY?"--James interrogates them on whether they are the str8 player. I'm surprised they let him, though maybe he threatened to call the whole thing off if they didn't (James? Backbone? Hmm).

Despite that Wes thing, I can't believe he is anything but gay, gay, gay. Same with Brian. But, I've been wrong. If I am this time though, I'll eat my hat. And when the strippers came in and Wes says "I don't know where they got those strippers, but get them out of there! We can give James a better lap dance than them!" Hello!

Damn, those clips of Franklin while they were talking about his hair were HOT. At the end with the 3 of them left with their champagne, Franklin looked GUILTY.

The previews were interesting.... James and Franklin in a hot tub! James and Franklin get a massage! And finally we see a mouth kiss between Wes and James.

It's Gay TV Nite!

I predict that Darren and either Franklin (hope not) or Sean is straight--or maybe both. And I predict that Carson will be hilarious.

A fabulous interview with the Queer Eye fab five, from the Advocate.

Okay, I'm a little surprised that they are coming out with The Beastmaster on DVD. I liked it but it wasn't all that great... like for instance Xena.

But why won't they come out with some real sci-fi classics like Space: Above and Beyond or Max Headroom?

Oh Jeez. People offended byDavid's weenie!

Interesting article about Kenneth Cole in the Post today. I remember his ads in Interview Magazine when I had a subscription back in the 80's (I even saved a few choice issues) and always thought they were clever. Even his website now is fun. I bought a cool gym/laptop courier bag from a KC outlet store a couple weeks ago.

The Iraq war continues to drag on. And I have to admit a little part of me is glad to see Bush continuing to look bad, though I would never wish this at the expense of more casualties. I happened to see part of one of the network morning shows where they profiled this very brave young soldier who had lost his leg. He was amazingly positive and upbeat, and I have to admire that courage. But what a waste. This man lost a limb (and hundreds have lost their lives) in a war George Bush demanded for his own political gain. And now they say the 100,000 plus who are still there may be for another year... or two.

They segued from this story to the perky host woman who's face went from somber to smiling in an instant as she said "And now, the hottest fall fashions for school!" Gawd.

Another Friday Five! Sorry it's late but our internet was down last Friday because we--though in DC--are slaves to our NY office. Though I'd rather have no internet than no A/C!

1. How much time do you spend online each day?

Scary to contemplate. Two to four hours I would guess.

2. What is your browser homepage set to?

At work, the local weather page. At home, Google (though I should change it, since my spiffy Safari browser has a built-in Google window).

3. Do you use any instant messaging programs? If so, which one(s)?

iChat at work.

4. Where was your first webpage located?

Same as always (though now little more than a portal).

5. How long have you had your current website?

At least 7 or 8 years... I'm not sure. When could you start making your own page on AOL?

This blackout (I so sympathize with the victims! No A/C! No internet! Nothing! I would die.) has me wanting to sell my currently way-overvalued condo in Arlington, move to Charlottesville, buy a house and cover the roof with solar panels. I could crank the A/C with no guilt! And apparently in many places the power company has to buy any excess energy from you! That must be from the Carter days (remember the windfall profits tax?) and hasn't been repealed because it hasn't been significant.

We HAVE to decentralize the power grid, and emphasize renewable energy. If we mass-produce solar electric cells they will get cheap. We have this monstrous free energy source over our heads every day. But of course Darth Cheney and his oil cronies hate the idea of a free energy source.

Howard Dean for President!

I know my grasp on reality is tenuous, but I swear those Discovery Channel promos on tv for the Nefertiti Special make me think of Stargate. And I did enjoy their publicity stunt: yesterday Ryan and I were walking along Connecticut Ave. downtown near Farragut North, and ran into a litter borne by four hot guys in little white skirts. On the litter rode Nefertiti herself, fanned by two other guys. Handmaids gave out clever half-masks of Nefertiti and her crown (channel and time information on the back). I suppressed the urge to kneel and genuflect.

A delightful summary of the latest episode of Boy Meets Boy, courtesy of gay.com.

I KNEW Michael was str8, and Dan, well, he was not only str8 but a jerk.

This is what I fear/predict for next episode:

They split the remaining guys into three pairs to protect the remaining str8s (I think there are 2, so they will put the two str8s together, two James likes together and two leftovers); James must pick one from each pair (no vetoes for Andra--she engineered the elimination of their asshole darling Dan): I am just hoping Franklin is gay though I fear he may not be... There BETTER not be three str8's left; that would mean they were a majority in the beginning and I would be rilly mad at the producers if they did that!

If the str8s are Darren and Sean:
Sean and Darren -- James will pick Sean
Wes and Franklin -- James will agonize and pick Franklin
Brian and Robb -- could go either way

If the str8s are Darren and Franklin:
Darren and Franklin: J will pick Franklin
Wes and Sean: J will pick Wes
Brian and Robb -- could go either way

If they are Sean and Franklin (unlikely; Darren seems str8)
Sean and Franklin: Franklin
Wes and Brian: Wes
Robb and Darren: Robb

THAT is when she tells James that one of them is str8.

Very entertaining article about how Queer Eye is really just an infomercial... even if it's... "an infomercial with heart. An extremely well-cast infomercial with heart. An extremely entertaining infomercial that throws in just enough humor to offset the show�s often cloying sweetness..."

Andrew Sullivan weighs in on Queer Eye and gay marriage.

What an awful accident. I immediately thought of the Atherton Twins and cute little Igor Arefiev who I saw in person in Dralion. The danger in this kind of thing shouldn't be taken for granted.

It seems like gay programming is everywhere these days. Though, like they said in Entertainment Weekly about this show: surprising it isn't on BRAVO.

Time for another Friday Five:

1. What's the last place you traveled to, outside your own home state/country?

My last cruise in March!

2. What's the most bizarre/unusual thing that's ever happened to you while traveling?

Having an uzi held to my head by a female Polizia in the Da Vinci Airport in Rome during a random security check.

3. If you could take off to anywhere, money and time being no object, where would you go?

So many places! New Zealand, London, Amsterdam, Australia, Rome, Germany, Prague... ACTUALLY why not think big (after just watching both Contact and 2010 for the umpteenth time) I'd ride in the Space Shuttle if I didn't have to go through months of training, and I'd go to Mars or Jupiter. The best would be if they developed some suspended animation technology of course. Mr Haddon, are you listening?

4. Do you prefer traveling by plane, train or car?

PLANE!

5. What's the next place on your list to visit?

Haven't decided for sure, maybe San Francisco in January.

Ahh, The Onion delivers another good one!

I'm thinking that I may just have to send money to Howard Dean, who is by far my favorite candidate.

More about Boy Meets Boy. The more I think about it, Franklin must be straight. No gay guy would tell another gay guy that he has "feminine eyes" as a compliment (as Franklin did to James on their 'one-on-one' time). Now, I want to see some boy-boy kissing! Really make the straight boys squirm and earn their money!

BTW I was almost named 'Franklin;' my older half-brother got the dubious honor of inheriting that name, along with a "III" after it.

I had wanted to see the new original FX Series Nip / Tuck (partly because it was starring that hottie Julian McMahon, who played a demon on Charmed), but it was on the same time as Queer Eye and of course that took precedence. Silly me. FX is almost as repeat-happy as BRAVO, so I recorded the third episode when it was rebroadcast at 11:30 Tuesday evening. Woah! Very Six Feet Under-esque in some way. It is kind of bloody, and the business with the son trying to circumcize himself really made me cringe. But I think I'll be adding it to my Season Pass list! Now I just hope they re-air the first two eps so I can see those too...

Another fun Boy Meets Boy. I feel kinda sorry for poor James, though his nervous little laugh is getting on my nerves.

I just knew that Jim was straight. And I had my suspicions about Paul. He was a little too quiet.

The others:
Brian H.: Gay
Dan: Straight
Darren: Gay (?)
Franklin: Gay
Matthew: Straight
Michael: Straight (?)
Robb: Gay!
Sean: Straight
Wes: Gay (though he is the one in the ads who is drinking wine with James and says "You assumed I was gay. Why!?" (um, your lispy voice? The tilt of your head?)

And something that is bugging me a little. I don't think we've seen one mouth-to mouth kiss actually shown on the screen.

New Queer Eye and Boy tonight! Whoo-hoo!

Regarding Boy Meets Boy, as usual, I pretty much agree with the Datalounge Editor. James is very cute, but somehow... bland (and is it just me, or does he just scream 'bottom'? I didn't think it was just me). And I don't agree with the two gay boys he axed in round one who were apparently 'too quiet' for him (though I was fooled by the butt-ugly chiropractor!). Meanwhile he keeps arrogant Dan (the blond "guy with a boyfriend), even though James has said he wants monogamy.

Just wait until the boys get bored vying for James' divided attentions and start hitting on each other. You certainly won't see that on one of those other romance reality shows!

This week's Friday Five:
(I like this one, kinda lite but not too vapid)

1. What time do you wake up on weekday mornings?

5:30 AM. My clock radio turns on the DC commercial classical station. (I used to listen to the NPR station, but they switched from classical music to Morning Edition, and I can't take all that depressing news.)

2. Do you sleep in on the weekends? How late?

Usually get up at the same time. I'm not much for sleeping in.

3. Aside from waking up, what is the first thing you do in the morning?

a. pee
b. make coffee.

4. How long does it take to get ready for your day?

I am out the door by 7:30 AM. That includes some time to read the paper.

5. When possible, what is your favorite place to go for breakfast?

I love a big greasy breakfast! My two favorite places around here are La Madeleine in Georgetown (though the traffic is a drag) or Metro 29 Diner just up the street in Arlington.