This video of Pulp at the Reading Festival in 1994 has been on Youtube for a year and it only has 1400 views so far, which is a crazy shame that maybe we should all collectively cry about. It’s so good! And the sound is good, too.

Anyway, I’m going to see Pulp IN THE FLESH at Radio City Music Hall tonight and I am so so so so so excited. I haven’t seen them live ever, and also I haven’t been to Radio City since my largely Jewish sixth-grade class took a big trip (with most of our parents) down there to see the Rockettes. (It took us six hours to get there and the one clear memory I have of that trip is this one girl Lori Carocciola’s mom spent some of the gridlock time by dancing in the aisles when “Rumpshaker” came on the radio. Oh, and that we almost didn’t make it back home because that same girl’s dad had disappeared into a bar at one point and the bus driver wouldn’t leave because we were one person short.)

Tomorrow’s the Headmaster party. I’m genuinely excited about this, too. We’re a Critics Pick in Time Out New York and also we’re Gayletter’s pick of the day for tomorrow. You should come! Scroll down to see the flyer, or just go to Kings Cross at 356 Bowery tomorrow (Thursday) from 7-11pm. We’ll have drink specials and awesome music and homework and possibly also a photographer stationed in the men’s room. Here’s the Facebook invite.

This New York Times article from the other day about important gay movies–and specifically the gay movies deemed important by celebrated gay New Yorkers–got me wondering which gay movie has been the most important to me, and I’m slightly at a loss. As a teenager I watched basically every movie released on VHS, and some of them were pretty gay. The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was a lot of fun, and Priest was pretty sad, and the Isaac Mizrahi documentary Unzipped was my favorite movie of 1996, according to a hand-written list that I found a few months ago. I’ve mentioned here before my love for Robert Altman’s Prêt-a-Porter, and Bound is just generally a really awesome movie, complete with Jennifer Tilly’s voice and lesbian sex scenes choreographed by Susie Bright.

But how important are these films, in the grand scheme of what it means to be gay and what it means for me personally to be a gay movie-lover?

Whenever any kind of [adjective]-est [form of media] ever list comes along I tend to jump back a half-century, to see what was going on then and see if there have been any particular leaps and bounds since then. Fifty-one years ago there was Victim, a melodramatic but ultimately rather lovable British film about the suicide of a young gay man and its implications on an upstanding lawyer. It’s rather preachy but actually very good, as are a bunch of other British movies from over the years, like Entertaining Mr. Sloane and The Killing of Sister George and My Beautiful Laundrette and Beautiful Thing, to name a few of the more obvious examples .

Other important old gay movies that stand out to me are Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train and Purple Noon, the original (French) adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Both of these were based on novels by Patricia Highsmith, but both, because of cinematic conventions of the time, avoid going into any kind of depth with their gay characters. So maybe we need to jump ahead a little bit, to when gay directors started making their own gay features.

Maybe Swoon?

Swoon is a 1992 retelling of the story of Leopold and Loeb, two teenaged homosexual geniuses in the 1920s who decided to kidnap and murder a younger neighbor as a means of getting away with the perfect crime. They failed.

Alfred Hitchcock adapted the story of fussy gay criminal masterminds committing murder for murder’s sake in Rope, which I think is one of his more tedious movies. But in 1992 director Tom Kalin reinvented the story, focusing more on the gay relationship and less on the drama surrounding the crime itself. I first learned about Swoon on PBS, when it got a mention in the ten-part American Cinema series from 1995. A while later, I watched it on late-night TV, possibly also on PBS. It was, I think, the first movie about gay characters that I had seen where the story wasn’t preachy, where the homoerotic was actually normalized, and where I felt like I had seen a queer movie that wasn’t intended for a general audience. It was intended for me.

I’ve actually only seen three of the sixteen films mentioned on the Times list*, since for all these years I’ve somehow avoided seeing Parting Glances and The Boys In The Band and Cruising and My Own Private Idaho. This is always on my imaginary to-do list of things to rectify; knowing the accepted canon of queer cinema–or at least mainstream movies with not-straight characters–seems like it might be important one day.

[*Taxi zum klo is fascinating and wonderful; Tongues Untied is flawed but important; Beautiful Thing is ridiculous but lovely.]

The cover story in the new issue of the South Florida Gay News takes a look at a five-year sting conducted by the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office against gay men in county parks. It’s a very frustrating story, though sadly it’s also rather predictable: Two cops, Peter Lazar and Van Garner, made over 600 arrests between 2005 and 2010 by convincing men to expose themselves to the officers on public property.

Allegedly the detectives were there in response to a request from the Palm Beach County parks department, but the paper’s investigation reveals that no such request was ever made. The director of the parks department, at least, says he had no idea about the operation, even though it took place under his nose for five years.

It’s not surprising that the parks department didn’t make a claim about a rampant sex problem, though, because public sex seems to happen only rarely in Palm Beach County. During Garner and Lazar’s five years on the job there were a grand total of four arrests for men having actual sex with other men in the parks. (And if there were only four arrests, that might have only been two actual sex acts.)

That’s why the officers had to spend to much time figuring out ways to lure men into exposing themselves. (Their methods, documented in police reports, included making the first move, using the phrase “I like to suck,” and getting on their knees. Additionally, they’d pretend to play with themselves and then feign shyness if the poor guy they snared asked for a look.)

Attorney Jeffrey Weiner says that cases like this are usually dismissed when brought to court. But because the defendants don’t want to deal with the embarrassment or can’t afford legal fees, they think it’s easier to put the problem behind them, a fact the cops know and prey upon. “[I]t’s terrible what they put people through,” Weiner says. “The means they use are really offensive. The games they play.” One man interviewed for the story, arrested for loitering in a park restroom after a jog in the park one day, decided not to fight the charges because he couldn’t afford a lawyer and also because he had been warned about retaliation from one of the detectives.

Paying fines seems easier than fighting the county in court, but most of the defendants interviewed seemed unaware that the misdemeanor charges lingered on their criminal records.

Real sex activity in the park was apparently so scarce that the pair of officers even resorted to the internet to get business. One unnamed man met the officers after they answered a Casual Encounters ad he placed on Craigslist. They chose the place, and when he got there and pulled his dick out he was promptly arrested.

And yes, okay, it’s true that the man knowingly went to the park with the intention of getting off there, and it’s true that public park cruising is a thing that happens in some places. And while it’s completely harmless, I understand that it’s illegal and bothers some people. But that’s not the point. The sad, annoying point is that the man only went there in the first place because the cops invited him to.

That’s entrapment, and it’s also discriminatory.

The SFGN reports, predictably, that there was no team of female officers trying to talk men into whipping their dicks out (even though a small number of women were arrested for prostitution in the county’s parks during that time.)

“I’ve never ever seen an operation where police utilized a female officer to come on to men,” said Russell Cormican, defender of over a hundred indecent exposure cases in Palm Beach County.  [He's also the partner of Norm Kent, the SFGN's publisher, although they don't mention that.*] “If you took an attractive female officer and put her by the restroom in a city park and she walked up to guys as they went in and out and asked them to show their private parts I think they would arrest a lot of guys.”

[*Maybe it's one of those "you'd know if you lived there" sorts of things?]

We’re rapidly closing in on the end of the year, so I thought I’d present you with 2011′s twelve most popular posts on Naked Pictures Of Your Dad.  (I’m going by unique hits to each photo’s page, not the number of Tumblr likes and reblogs.  Though I should mention that, despite several lengthy posting breaks this year, my number of Tumblr followers more than doubled.) Actually, each of the top ten posts got about a thousand more hits than the corresponding posts did last year.

Boners and stuff after the jump:

12.) With 1563 hits and 231 likes and reblogs, this photo of newish porn star Patrick O’Brien was the twelfth most popular image on NPOYD this year.  [He's also pictured at the top of this post, in a shoot he did for Randy Blue.]

11. Posted August 19, this vintage beefcake is Fred Jensen, and he’s photographed by David Martin.  It got 1599 hits, but only 61 notes.

10. The tenth most popular post, hilariously, was my mirror self-portrait with boner and thunderthighs at the Hotel Richelieu in New Orleans.  Because I am modest–ahem–I’m just going to make that one a clickthrough.

9. This strapping fellow comes to us via the great Men Of The World blog.  I don’t know who he is or who the photographer is, but he scored 1,808 hits and 305 notes.

8. The oldest post on the list is this one, originally put up on January 21.  1,909 hits for this girthy fellow, plus 237 likes and reblogs.

7. Via Visions of Penis, this odd image scored 1967 hits, plus 161 Tumblr notes.

6. This February 2nd guest post by James, commemorating NPOYD’s second anniversary, was quite popular.  The Ron Amato photograph got 2,524 hits over the year and 302 Tumblr likes and reblogs.

5. This Jack Off Material post from July got 2,529 hits and 261 notes.  Again, no clue about who this fine, fine, fine, fine man is or where this photo first appeared, though it’s very Playgirl-looking.

4. Another unknown model, originally posted on February 18, this guy racked up 2,636 hits and got 377 likes and reblogs.

3. Finally, something with a little bit of narrative.  This Men Of The World post from March 13 only had 204 notes, though it did get 2,657 unique hits in its own right.

2. No idea who this hunky man is, either, and again no idea about the photographer, either.  But he was popular, getting Liked and Reblogged 455 times in addition to getting 3,689 unique pageviews.

1. The single most popular post of the year was an anniversary guest-blog by Billy Miller, editor of Straight To Hell.  This PG-13 photo of a Wolverine opting for the patdown got 4,666 hits, almost 1,000 hits more than any other post I put up this year.

Well, there you go.  Check back on the Tumblr to see all 1,998 posts I’ve put up so far this year, and expect a few more before tomorrow’s over with.

This Tuesday we’re having a holiday party for Headmaster in Providence at The Avery.  7-10pm.

We’re also throwing a two-and-a-third-days-only-more-or-less sale at the new Headmaster Online Shoppe.  Order now and save on magazines, prints, or our new series of black-on-black tool shed notebooks.  The magazines also make delightful presents, I should note.

Just a quick reminder about a bunch of stuff I’ve got going on in the next 48 hours:

1. Tomorrow (Thursday) night I’m reading with Conner Habib at the AS220 Project Space in downtown Providence.  7pm.  I’m very excited to meet Conner in person finally, and also excited (yet nervous!) to be reading a story in front of some people I actually see regularly but who maybe don’t know as much about me as they think they do…

2. Friday I’m helping njoy throw the official after-party for the Fleshbot Awards at the G2 Lounge in New York (9th Ave @ 14th St.)  The party’s free and open to the public and will be really fun–awesome music, drinks galore, and one njoy eleven (a giant, 2.75 lb. stainless steel toy with a retail value of about $300) will be given away to one lucky partygoer.

3. I’m still working on my month-long photo project, documenting guys in my apartment as I prepare to move out and move in with my boyfriend after six years of living apart.  Preview images–basically untouched/barely-touched photos that may or may not end up with the final portfolio–can be seen on my Tumblr.

4. I’m blogging about fashion, still, and just today I posted a piece about what to where when you’re a couple and you’re performing at the Eurovision Song Contest.

[photo: Italy at Eurovision 1984.  Not the best look.]

So, close readers of this blog will know that for a couple of years now I’ve had a giant mental and physical boner for porn star writer Conner Habib.  So I’m super-excited to announce that this Thursday he’ll be in Providence and we’ll be reading some non-fiction together.

The reading takes place at 7pm at the AS220 Project Space–that’s the one on Mathewson St., next to the Stable.  The reading starts at 7pm and I can genuinely say that you should totally try to be there.  Conner is a very smart and interesting guy, and hopefully when we finally meet face-to-face I’ll be able to, you know, function and not just start slobbering.  Although COME ON would you blame me.  Especially now that I just saw stills from Joe Gage’s upcoming Dad Goes To College.  Holy Lord does that look like my new favorite movie ever.

It’s official… After seven years (and four roommates) in the same apartment, I’m moving at the end of November. Not far, just under two miles, but far enough that I’ll be spending a lot of time in the coming weeks cleaning out my attic. And my basement. And my garage. And my bedroom. And so forth.  (I’m not a hoarder, exactly, but seven years is a long time for books and papers to accumulate.)

That said, I’m doing one last major thing before I go: You know how periodically I advertise that I’m looking for models for dirty-ish photo projects? Yeah, so I’m going to do one more run of those before I go, as a way of saying goodbye to the place and also as a way to keep my sanity and not stress over what I’m going to do with all of my belongings now that I’m not going to have an attic and basement and garage…

So, if you’re in the Providence area and feel like taking your pants off for me, drop me an e-mail (mixtapesforhookers@gmail.com) and we can talk.

[photo: Guy In My Bedroom, 2008 (?)]

I’ve been avoiding most of the talk surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement, mostly for the completely selfish reason that I’ve been seriously job-hunting for months now and have no leads whatsoever and I don’t know if I can mentally handle the knowledge that there are thousands and thousands of other people out there who are in exactly the same position, if not worse, and that basically we’re all trying to get the same ten or twenty jobs.  It’s… daunting.  And sad, but mostly daunting.

The Occupy Providence movement, which officially kicked off nearly a week ago, was largely organized by queers, from what I can tell.  I haven’t visited the encampment, although it’s smack in the middle of downtown (across from the city’s only bus terminal), but that’s the impression that I get, anyway.

There’s a local LGBT news listserv I subscribe to, where occasionally someone will say something that’s only partially related to the gays and then the moderator will immediately step in and tell people that one can not promote one’s event on the LGBT listserv unless it’s about AIDS or unless a drag queen is hosting.  (Literally, she has said that.)  It’s a good policy during election season and kind of a frustrating policy when it’s not election season.

But anyway, this one person’s e-mail slipped through the other day, and it’s so completely misguided and weird that I thought I would share it with you:

I am conducting a survey of the GLBT community related to the recent Occupy X going on around the country, most recently Occupy Providence.

The gist of the message that this movement promotes seems to be thatthey are victims.  They are not given the things they should be givenand they can do nothing to help themselves.  For example, they shouldhave a job but they don’t and so they are a victim, apparently of those who have money.

My thesis is that there are two types of people, or rather two mental perspectives and these are victims are owners.  A victim is someone who sees themselves as completely subject to the whims of the environment they are in.  They can do nothing to change their situation and others are to blame.  An owner sees themselves as responsible for their own life, and while effected by their environment, not at the mercy of it.  They do not look to others to blame but look to what they can do to improve their own situation. This concept of Owners and Victims was first proposed by Steve Chandler, a renowned self help author and consultant.  In different terms, it can also be found in books like The Secret or in the application of The Law of Attraction.

To help me with this survey, please email to the address below with a subject line of Victim if that is how you see yourself or Owner is that is how you see yourself.  If you have the time, I would also like it if you could state briefly in the email how this self identification has helped you in your life.

With these reference points, do you think that anyone is actually going to put the word Victim in the subject line of their e-mail?  That the Occupiers, people who are in a very literal way trying to change their situation, would be framed as people who are not given the things they should be given?  This line of thinking is so foreign to me that I needed a day or two to digest it, to make sure that I wasn’t misinterpreting it or reading wrong.  But, um, no.  No, I’m not.  I can’t say that I’m familiar with the work of this one renowned self help author and consultant, but if books like The Secret are seriously being used as reference points, then this e-mail may be the most completely depressing thing I’ve read all last month.

(image via WBUR)

I’m guest blogging over at Manhunt Daily for a couple of days.  It’s fun, so far I’ve gotten to talk about sucking Stanley Tucci’s dick (I wanna I wanna I wanna I wanna) and failing to seduce the Vios salesman.  Who knows what filthy nonsense I’ll say next.