Where’s the Dildo?
There’s a game on Tumblr where photos are posted and people have to find the hidden dildo in each photo. I think it’s amusing and the intention is pure fun.
It puts the dildo in its rightful place. Front and center. Well, sort of. I mean, it’s hiding. But it’s asking to be found and — like a car wreck — it’s impossible to look away.
Dildos are our friends. Certainly a friend to the lesbian. But no reason it shouldn’t be a friend to gay men and straight men and women and every other self-respecting adult.
This cute little project makes these oft whispered about toys a little less daunting. It’s hard not to laugh and imagine the little guy holding its breath thinking, “She’s never going to find me! Ah! Look at her looking over there when I’m over here.” Just makes me giggle.
You can rad more here. It reminds me of a story. I had a good friend who passed suddenly and the day after he died his attorney phoned me and asked me to rush over to my friend’s house. When I got there his attorney looked at me with a blank stare, pulled a two foot long dildo out of a shopping bag, and asked me to do something with it. Evidently, the attorney who was handling his estate didn’t want my friend’s family to come into town and find the dildo in my friend’s closet. Of course I took the dildo off his hands, so to speak, but I always wondered why anyone would be more worried about a big latex dildo than the fact that a family member was dead.
Mocking Gay Marriage in New Zealand
This story has been making all the rounds on social media. I saw it first on Twitter, and I didn’t look into it. I thought it was just about two dumb straight guys faking gay marriage in order to win a contest and get attention. As it turns out, and the reason I’m linking now, the contest was held by a radio station in New Zealand to see how far two straight men would go to win something, making gay marriage the butt of the joke.
New Zealand’s The Edge radio station launched its “Love You Man” contest last month. The contest was set up to see how far two best male friends would go to win a trip to the Rugby World Cup in 2015. The Edge has apparently made a name for itself staging outrageous weddings, starting 13 years ago when they married two complete strangers.
“After the announce this morning, and the positive reception from our listeners, I am confident ‘Love You Man’ will add to The Edge’s reputation of pushing the boundaries,” Program Director Leon Wratt said in an August press release. “We’re not out to offend, just to make entertaining radio.”
I like to think I have a sense of humor (I thought the dildo game was funny), but this was really bad timing. Millions of gay couples still can’t legally wed and this group is joking around about it. It might be funny twenty or thirty years from now, but even that makes me wonder. We still have a long way to go as far as respect goes. In other words, be just as afraid of offending us as you are offending other loud minority groups.
You can read more here. There’s a very interesting comment thread, with one comment from a m/m author I know.
Cheyenne Jackson Wedding
I’m not so sure this is good or bad. It seems that gay marriage has finally joined the ranks of Hollywood marriages, and it’s become gossip worthy. You know, where they marry and divorce the same way the rest of us lease new cars every two years just so we can get a newer model.
Entertainer Cheyenne Jackson, 39, has married Jason Landau, his boyfriend of more than a year and who some media outlets are identifying as an entrepreneur (although of what it is unclear), at an estate in Encino, California Saturday night. The couple exchanged rings and vows in front of a group of friends that included Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jane Lynch and Alicia Silverstone. The two men have been engaged since February. It’s been a controversial relationship. Last summer, Jackson divorced his first husband Monte Lapka after being married for two years and after a total of 13 years together and quickly took up with Landau, who according to a source he met at a 12-step meeting.
And they lived happily ever after.
James Frey’s Full Fathom Five
James Frey, who became well known with a bestselling memoir titled, A Million Little Pieces, and then even more well known when it was discovered the book wasn’t all truth and he duped Oprah, has launched a digital imprint called Full Fathom Five. First, this is significant because anyone who can last in the vicious world of publishing these days gets credit from me. Second, Frey isn’t questioning e-books or whether or not they will stay around. Third, the titles at FFF look damn good.
FFF Digital begins life with Amanda Black’s The Apartment, the first of many genre e-books that the new imprint believes wouldn’t fit into a traditional publishing model but would resonate with digital-savvy modern readers. It’s also hosting a two-month-long contest to find new authors; the prize is a publishing deal and $10,000 in cash.
You can read more about it here. In spite of some heavy criticism, Frey continues to succeed and he seems to know what his readers want. Take note that some of the bestselling titles seem to be adult romance.
