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JULY 08 FREE
READY TO FALL FORMCFLYALL OVER AGAIN?
LOVINGSUMMER
BEACH BOOKS • RUPERT SMITH’S PORN WITH A PLOTNEIL BARTLETT SKINS UP • THE GAY SUPERMODEL+
LIFE
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POP’S NEW GAY STAR - EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
LONDON LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL
GAYS ON FILM
BAHRAINA QUEER GUIDE TO AN ANTI-GAY PARADISE
ANTHONY
CHELSEA BOYSMARCELLA PUPPINI’S
EXPERIMENTAL ART
GUCCI LOVEJENNY GUCCI
ON THEHORRORSOF HIGHFASHION
TOPCOPBRIAN PADDICK IN THE LINE OF FIRE
HANNAH
LIFE
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EUROVISIONTHIS YEAR’S NUTTIEST ENTRIES PREVIEWED
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STRAIGHTTOBED
‘THE PREGNANT MAN’ VS THE LGBT COMMUNITY
KID CONTROVERSY
HOW TO TURN THAT CUTE GUY GAY
AMANDA LEPORE LETS RIPFIERCE PUSSY
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newsinbriefEagle lands in Liverpool
Maria Eagle MP and LGBT Development Officer Matt FoxPhotograph: Rebecca Dittman
SCREENBURNjosh winning’s hot pics from the fl icks
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SCREENBURNjosh winning’s hot pics from the fl icks
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SONIQUEDJ & POP SUPERSTAR with her No 1 hits ‘IT FEELS SO GOOD’ and ‘SKY’, and the new single ‘SWEET VIBRATION’.
19 July
KATHERINE ELLISNew Freemasons vocalist with ‘WHEN YOU TOUCH ME’ plus hits with 7th Heaven, Ruff Driverz, ASBO & Wilder.
26 July
BASSHUNTERThe Swedish chart topper is back with his new single ‘ALL I EVER WANTED’, out 7 July.
Advance tickets available from
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12 July
H-two-0 feat PLATNUMThe monster anthem ‘WHAT’S IT GONNA BE?’, plus Platnum performing their new single ‘LOVESHY (Thinkin’ About You)’.
2 August
TAIO CRUZPerforming with live band, including the massive top 10 smash ‘COME ON GIRL’& ‘I JUST WANNA KNOW’.
PLAYLISTniall mcmurray gets in the groove
POPSCORN
ME AND MICKIE JAMESAuthor: Drew GummersonPublished by: Jonathan Cape, £11.99
CALL ME BY YOUR NAMEAuthor: Andre AcimanPublished by: Atlantic Books, £10.99
THE IMPOSTORAuthor: Damon GalgutPublished by: Atlantic Books £12.99
THE TRIUMPH OF CAESARAuthor: Steven SaylorPublished by: Constable, £12.99
BOOKWORMpeter burton’s guide to literary heaven [or hell]
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the mcfly boys return with a new album, a new sound and a new label. but will they keep their clothes on?
for four white guys
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FEATURE
Bullied when he was a boy growing up in Oran in French-ruled Algeria because of his obvious homosexuality, Yves Mathieu Saint-Laurent went on to become one of France’s most recognisable (if reclusive) and successful clothes designers.
But international recogni-tion was no salve to an intensely neurotic and highly addictive personality. He had suffered a complete breakdown when unexpectedly drafted into the French army in 1960 and had lifelong problems with alcohol, drugs and men (including a fraught relationship with dandy Jacques de Bascher, who flitted between Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld, one-time friend, sometimes enemy, unremitting rival).
Although protected by his long-term lover Pierre Berge, who thought him a genius (they were a couple for eighteen years, business partners for life) YSL (his initials became the brand name) was clearly never a happy man.
Born on August 1st 1936, YSL showed an early fascination with designing clothes for women and had decamped to Paris by the age of sixteen. He attracted attention two years later when he won the first and third prizes in a dress design contest sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat.
By the age of twenty-one, he was chief designer at Dior, but he alienated the company’s executives with his iconoclastic designs (a leather pants suit, for example) and found there was no place for him when he released from hospital after his brief stint withthe military.
Undaunted, he founded his own company (1962) and this went on to become a huge worldwide success whose innovative designs he hoped would liberate women from the oppression they had suffered for gen-erations. The trouser suit, for instance, was virtually his creation. Besides haute couture, YSL founded the Rive Gauche label, which made fashion both accessible and affordable, and he decisively influenced clothes for both men and women for most of the second half of the twentieth century.
YSL also did designs for ballet and theatre and was himself the subject of a major retrospective at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1983.
Yves Saint Laurent retired in 2002 and sold his company to Gucci for one billion dollars - a move he reportedly regretted. He died in Paris on June 1st after a long illness.
DEPARTURES
GET A SNEAK PREVIEW OF MCFLY’S NEW SINGLE, ONE FOR THE RADIO, AT WWW.MYSPACE.COM/MCFLYTHE SINGLE IS OUT ON MON 14 JULY
*SKIN LANE BY NEIL BARTLETT IS PUBLISHED BY SERPENT’S TAILAT £7.99; ROMEO AND JULIET, DIRECTED BY NEIL BARTLETT,
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NOVEMBER 11TH-15TH AND THE THEATRE ROYAL, NORWICH,NOVEMBER 18TH-22ND.
Taking a break from preparing to direct a new production of Romeo and Juliet for the Royal Shakespeare Company, Neil Bartlett told Peter Burton about his first novel, Skin Lane, a new edition of which has recently appeared.
Neil Bartlett:History Man
“It’s important to respect thereality of people’s lives; it
matters. And if you don’t get it right, people stop you in the
street or write to you to tell you.”
Twenty-five-year old Ronnie Kroell has a cheeky, winning smile and a body to die for. It’s what first got him noticed as he auditioned for the hit US reality show Make Me A Supermodel(which starts on LivingTV this month) – his first step on the campaign trail to becoming
the world’s most powerful man. We fell for Ronnie from the word go. Wasting no time at
all, he confesses that his previous boyfriend had a secret porn career (“a friend sat me down and said he’d seen my boyfriend on a website, and sure enough, there he was, lying spread-eagled, getting it. We didn’t last much longer”) and that he “likes to be dominated”. And this is within the first fifteen minutes of episode one.
“I like to think I’m becoming more versatile in my rela-tionships,” he jokes, when I mention the scene where he seemed oh-so-comfortable bending over for the camera. “I was keen to be open from the start on the show. I tried to share that I’m a normal guy who just happens to be gay.”
We have, of course, seen modelling competitions on TV before, but none are quite like Make Me A Supermodel. Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model is, as yet, just for girls (boo!), and the worldwide spin-offs (Britain’s Next Top Model, Mongolia’s Next Top Model etc) are also solely for females;
back in 2001/2002, Model Behaviour aired in the UK, claim-ing to be ‘the largest modeling search in Britain with more than 25,000 people taking part’. Men and women between 16 and 24 strutted their stuff and partially stripped off in order to prove they could make the move from unknown to cover star… It was a wank fest for admirers of the male form, but it was still so cautiously vanilla. Make Me A Supermodel, where 14 models compete for $100,000 and a modelling contract with New York Model Management is, on the other hand (my right hand is exhausted), a homoerotic strip tease from beginning to end.
“I know! It’s scandalous,” Ronnie laughs. “But we knew going into it that it was going to involve some nudity. The producers warned us that to be on the show, we needed to be comfortable in our own skin. The most shocking part was having to be drawn in front of an art class, in the nude. It was quite a challenge to get naked in front of so many people and be comfortable.” The producers certainly understand how to keep an audience.
One of the most endearing aspects of Make Me A Supermodel is the blossoming relationship between the two hottest guys: Ronnie (gay) and Ben DiChiara, a straight, married, twenty-two-year-old deputy sheriff from Nashville, Tennessee. It’s immediately apparent that Ronnie has a
crush on him, and, sharing a room in the Model house, the pair strike up a strong alliance (earning them the combined nickname ‘Bronnie’, in the same vain as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s ‘Brangelina’.) “Ben went on quite a journey on the show,” says Ronnie. “There’s a lot of closed-minded-ness is the southern states and Ben’s prejudices about gay people really come out as the show progresses. But it just goes to show how contact between different groups can combat hatred – Ben is now one of my closest friends.”
The concept of combating prejudice through contact and communication between different communities is some-thing very close to Ronnie’s heart. In 2005, he set up 4-Plus-1.org, a not-for profit initiative to bridge diversity through the arts. “We’re trying to schedule a network of artists and educators who are already making a difference in their community to encourage open lines of communication,” he explains. “If we can help artists who have a positive mes-sage to get that heard then we’re achieving our end goal, which is to reduce hate crime and prejudice and celebrate our differences. It’s so much easier to hate a certain type of person if you’ve never had any connection to them or heard their story. We feel that by sharing stories and giving people the space to tell their story in a comfortable environment we can make a difference where it matters the most.”
With any luck, 2009 will see the first black man become president of the United States of America. But Ronnie Kroell, a gay supermodel from Chicago, Illinois, is looking way beyond the his-toric milestone of Barack Obama win-ning the keys to the White House – he wants to be the first gay president. But can Ronnie realise his dream by becoming a contestant on a modelling competition? Is America ready for a gay leader? And aren’t supermodels all a bit thick anyway? Torsten Højer dives in.
“It’s always a challenge to get naked in front of so many people
and feel comfortable”
RONNIE KROELL
OOAMBITION
The painter and illustrator Richard Chopping, who died aged ninety-one on April 17, is likely to be best remembered for the distinctive water colours he painted (each taking a month to complete) for the covers of nine of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books.
The first of these (in a highly recognisable trompe d’oeil style) was for From Russia With Love in 1957 and he used the same format for the other Bond titles (including Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice and The Man With the Golden Gun) as well as for more eso-teric books such as David Benedictus’s The Fourth of June. Chopping’s imagery was lushly overblown and suggested that within all beautiful objects there is a solid core of corruption.
However, Chopping should also be remem-bered as the author of two highly idiosyncratic nov-els, The Fly (1965) and The Ring (1967), the latter of which is a grimly compel-ling phantasmagorical tale about a descent into the nether reaches of London’s homosexual underworld in the nineteen sixties. He wrote several further novels (Intimate Strangers, The Watcher, Georges Simenon Murdered and The Raptor), though none
were published. He also wrote 140,000 words of autobiography.
The Raptor came close to publication in 1991, but Chopping withdrew the books (a graphic story of murder) saying “When I wrote it in June 1978, to carve up a corpse, and so
on, was an original idea. But now when such mur-ders and disposals have become a commonplace inthe media … the whole book has lost itsunpleasant originality and has become little more than sheer bad taste.”
Born in Colchester, Essex on April 14th 1917, Chopping was educated at Gresham’s School in Norfolk but spent most of his life in Wivenhoe, Essex. He and his partner Dennis Wirth-Miller lived in Wivenhoe for more than sixty years and were the first couple to register a civil partnership in nearby Colchester. Chopping was a friend of the Bloomsbury figure Frances Partridge and makes frequent appear-ance in the seven volumes of her published Diaries.
DEPARTURES
Make Me A Supermodel starts on Monday 14 July, 9pm on LIVING and runs for 13 weeks. Send Ronnie a message via www.myspace.com/president2020
Constantly referred to as ‘too commercial’ or ‘too all-American’ to be taken seriously on Make Me A Supermodel, it’s clear you presume Ronnie is a ‘dumb blonde’ at your own risk. At just twenty-five he’s articulate, ambitious and opinionated - especially when it comes to LGBT issues.
“People never take me seriously at first,” he says. “It’s always so funny to see people’s reactions when I open my mouth and start to talk about something that models don’t usually talk about - like politics - and they stand there open mouthed … since doing the show, I’ve received so many messages from gay guys showing support and wishing me luck. I hope by being so open I’ve made a difference... I tried to share on the show how my sexuality is only a part of me. I think that gay people have been trying to create a community for so long
that’s based only on who we’re attracted to that there’s a danger, especially for LGBT youth, that we can’t focus on anything other than our sexuality. It can take years for some young gay guys to realise that they so much more to offer the world than their sexual orientation. I think we need to build more bridges between the gay and straight communities, especially in America to try and dispel the stereotypes and crap that’s out there. I was talking to a guy the other day and he said that when he came out the only thing his mother said was ‘I hope I never see you in a gay pride parade’, and it’s a good example of how the straight community perceives us – in that all we do is run around wearing pink thongs. More and more people need to come out in positions of authority and success to challenge the perceptions of gay people.”
So who’s Ronnie up against? The boys, clock-
wise from top: contestants Jay, Perry, Casey, Dominic,
Ben (in pink!), presenter Tyson Beckford, the group,
and contestant Frankie.
Get it on with Pride.For tips on using condoms visit www.chapsonline.org.uk/getitonor call
Charity number 288527
Rupert Smith is known as a novelist (I Must Confess, Fly on the Wall, Service Wash), biog-rapher (Man Enough to be a Woman, with Jayne County, Physique: the Life of John S Barrington), writer of TV tie-ins (Eastenders: Twenty Years in Albert Square) and as a jour-
nalist (Radio Times, Guardian). What he was not known as was a pornographer; at least, not until he recently came out as award-nominated and bestselling writer of homoerotica James Lear.
We met at London’s The Oval House where Rupert – a study in respectability in a stylish black suit and white shirt – was preparing to induct actor Bette Bourne into the House of Homosexual Culture’s Hall of Fame.
How did Rupert Smith become James Lear?“Five or six years ago I was having difficulty placing my
second novel, Fly on the Wall. When I signed the deal for that book I was very frustrated,” Rupert explains. “I was having dinner with a friend who is also a writer and he said - semi-in-jest, ‘Have you ever thought about writing porn?’
“At that point Virgin Books had a gay porn imprint, Idol, who were looking for projects and so he put me in touch with the editor and she said ‘yes, give it a go’.
“But Idol closed down shortly after and the project was taken-up by the classily named Zipper Books. I write a sort of porn pastiche of or homage to or reworking of Kidnappedby Robert Louis Stevenson. I called it The Low Road and it was duly published and sold out very quickly. Zipper asked for another and I wrote The Palace of Varieties* - a pastiche of George du Maurier’s Trilby and a couple of the more homoerotic novels by Balzac. That also did well, but then Zipper Books folded. But, by that time, I‘d got books published under my own name and I thought, ‘It kept me in print’.
“But James Lear had really taken off, gathered momen-tum. People really loved those books and I really enjoyed writing them. They release you from a lot of the narrative hang-ups of literary fiction. And I already had a third, The Back Passage*, written – a sort of homage to Agatha Christie and the country house murder mystery.
“I didn’t have anywhere to go with it. There was no longer a British gay publisher and the publishers of straight erotica would not publish anything gay – which I found really astonishing. Quite upsetting, really. However, it all had a silver lining because I hooked up with this publisher in San Francisco, Cleis, and they saw the potential, published it and it has sold like hot cakes.
“The American market’s so much bigger. In the UK, a literary novel will barely sell 5,000 copies and so the porn market is perceived to be that much smaller, but in the US you can comfortably shift between 5,000 – 10,000 copies.
“In terms of the identity of James Lear, I wrote the books under a pseudonym for two reasons.
“Firstly, I wanted to differentiate between the two streams of my writing. Rupert Smith’s work is a certain kind of con-temporary – comic, satirical. Secondly, at that time, I was earning most of my money from the BBC and I didn’t think the Corporation would take too kindly, to having my name on their books as well as on the wank books.
“So I just concocted the name James Lear out of my own second name and, depending on who I’m talking to, from either the fact that I was Amanda Lear’s first husband or that I’m Edward Lear’s grandson or great-grandson or whatever.”
But why has Rupert now admitted that he is also James Lear?He laughs. “Because I want some of the credit,” he admits.The James Lear books are unusual in the canon of
homoerotica, not least because they are entirely literate, carefully constructed, with narrative tension arising out of plot, characterisation, attention to detail (there’s a real sense of period), humour and, naturally, lashings of sex.
“I try to give a balance between the sexy stuff and the literary stuff,” Rupert explains. “You can’t live on dessert alone, you’ve got to have a main course. I think that’s where a lot of erotic fiction falls down; it focuses too much on The Act. Endless descriptions… there are only so many different words for ‘cock’.”
Perhaps surprisingly, a large proportion of James Lear’s readers are women. “I think that challenges a lot of the ideas about who is the audience for gay literature,” Rupert says. “I think women love reading about gay stuff. It’s been a real revelation, a real eye-opener. I had no idea and publish-ers have no idea.
“One woman wrote to me saying, ‘I like cock. One cock, good. Two cocks, better…’”
Rupert admits that when he’s writing as James Lear he sometimes feels he’s writing into a vacuum and that there’s very little competition.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else in the UK writing quality gay porn,” he tells me. “I can’t think of anybody and if they are, they aren’t getting published. My James Lear books outsell a great deal of the prize-winning fiction that’s pub-lished here. They’re selling a lot – but I still don’t think that any UK publisher would touch them because they just don’t see that there’s a market out there.”
Rupert Smith’s James Lear novels are all set in the not-too-distant past and have carefully delineated historical backgrounds. It therefore comes as no surprise to discover that he is a prime mover behind the House of Homosexual Culture, a loosely constructed organisation which arranges events at which people come together to discuss and cel-ebrate gay culture and history.
“We wanted to establish some kind of forum where the generations could come together,” Rupert explains. “We though initially it was going to be a little salon-y type of thing, that we’d meet in people’s houses and the upper rooms of pubs and we’d have a subject and a speaker. But it really grew…”
*The Palace of Varieties (£9.99), The Back Passage (£8.99) and Hot Valley (£8.99) by James Lear are published by Cleis and distributed in the UK by Turnaround.
There are three House of Homosexual Culture events during the London Literature Festival 2008 at the South Bank Centre
this month:Sat 5 July: Dirty Books (St Paul’s Pavilion). A celebration of erotic literature – straight, gay, bisexual, supernatural, you name
it. Guests include Mathilde Madden, Suzanne Portnoy, Ika Willis, Erastes and male strippers JJ O’Neil and Danny Valentino.
Mon 14 July: City Lights (Purcell Room). Exploring the role and importance of the city in gay and lesbian fiction. Guests include
Brian Paddick, Christopher Fowler, Maureen Duffy, Stella Duffy and gay rapper QBoy.
Tuesday 15 July: The Lavender Library (Queen Elizabeth Hall). A panel of writers and performers celebrate the legacy of gay and lesbian literature by championing their favourite books and authors. Guests include Julian Clary on E F Benson, Andy Bell on Joe Orton, David McAlmont on James Baldwin and Diana Souhami on Gertrude Stein.From July 25 (to coincide with Royal Festival Hall’s production of TheWizard of Oz) Dorothy Night will be a series of late night cabarets at the South Bank Centre.
www.southbankcentre.co.uk
“One reader wrote to me saying,‘I just like cock. One cock is good,but two cocks are better’.”
FORTHCOMING LITERARY EVENTS
HAND CRAFTNovelist, biographer and journalist RUPERT SMITH recently confessed to being the author of bestselling homoerotica under the name James Lear. Now nominated as Best Writer in the British Erotic Awards for 2008, he discussed how well written porn is the way forward with Peter Burton.
INTERVIEW
Something to
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“Hadrian was gay,” writes Thorsten Opper, curator of the exhibition Hadrian: Empire and Conflict - which gives an unparalleled opportunity to examine one of the ancient world’s most famous gay relationships – that is currently on display at the British Museum.
“The exact nature of his sexuality has been the sub-ject of much speculation, ranging from contemporary detractors to enraged Christians and shame-faced modern historians, and it continues to occupy his biographers to this day. Yet to ordinary Romans it mattered little, for in the beginning at least, Hadrian’s predilections seemed nothing special.
“If anything set Hadrian apart, it was that his name became forever associated with one particular indi-vidual: Antinous, a young Greek in his entourage. This was prompted not by their behaviour towards each other in public or private, but by the unprecedented honours Hadrian lavished on his deceased lover after Antinous’ death in the Nile in AD130.
“The spread and continuing popularity of Antinous’ posthumous cult sparked extremely hostile reac-tions, especially by Christians eager to eliminate the spritual rival to their own Christ. At the same time, the countless images set up in Antinous’ memory formed a very visible and highly influential part of Hadrian’s legacy.”
Hadrian was born either in Spain or in Rome (the records differ) in AD76 and was adopted as heir to the Empire in AD117 by his kinsman the Emperor Trajan when he was on his deathbed.
Immediately proclaimed Emperor by the army upon Trajan’s death, Hadrian found he had come to power at a moment of acute crisis and had to make instant deci-sions which were to have far-reaching consequences.
He had to put down insurrections in Egypt, Palestine and Syria and resolve problems elsewhere in his vast domains. He withdrew the Roman garrison from Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq) and consolidated the over-stretched frontiers rather than following a programme of expansion.
Once he had established his authority in Rome, Hadrian set out an extensive tour of his realm, visit-ing Gaul, Germany, Britain (building the wall that stretches across the country from Solway to the Tyne, which bears his name and remains a tourist attraction to this day), Spain, Mauretania, Egypt, Asia Minor and Greece. “In the process he must have met more of his subjects than any Emperor before him,” Opper comments.
Amongst those Hadrian encountered on this Grand Tour was a fifteen-year-old youth from Bithynia (in present-day Turkey). The meeting between the Emperor and Antinous probably took place in AD123 and it has been suggested that he may have been a male whore.
Little is known about the living Antinous (he doesn’t enter the historical record until after his death), but of one thing there can be no doubt: Antinous was loved obsessively by the Emperor.
After Antinous’ mysterious death by drowning in the Nile in AD130 whilst the couple were touring the Empire “Hadrian plunged into an orgy of despair, then did all his vast power and wealth would allow to memorialise his lover, by building a city named for him,” as the American writer John Paul Hudson has stated.
“Hadrian was noted for his intelligent, circumspect rule … for building walls to stay barbarian invasions, and for putting down the last serious revolt by the Jews.” (This latter was in part caused by his own ban on circumcision, which he believed inhumane.)
“But it was his love for his flawless consort, Antinous, that posterity has chiefly remembered.”
The Emperor Hadrian died in AD138 and was buried in a splendid mausoleum, now a part of the Castel Sant Angelo in Rome.
Hadrian: Empire and Conflict brings together one hundred and eighty objects from lenders in Italy and Israel and Georgia and Newcastle (as well as from the British Museum’s own collection) which reflect all aspects of Hadrian (and Antinous’) lives. It offers an unparalleled opportunity to closely examine one of the greatest of historical gay romances.
POWER AND PASSIONA major new exhibition at the British Museum focuses on the life of the
Roman Emperor Hadrian, who consolidated the Empire but is probably morefamous as the lover of the beautiful boy Antinous.
Top left image: Bronze head from
a statue of the Emperor Hadrian, Rom
an Britain, 2nd century AD. Found in the River Thames near London Bridge in 1834. ©
Trustees of the British Museum
“The love affair between Hadrian and Antinous is one of the
greatest historical gay romances”
HADRIAN & ANTINOUS
HADRIAN: EMPIRE AND CONFLICT IS AT THEREADING ROOM AT THE BRITISH MUSEUM FROMJULY 24 – OCTOBER 26 2008. ADMISSION IS £12
(THERE IS ALSO A RANGE OF CONCESSIONS); HADRIAN: EMPIRE AND CONFLICT BY THORSTENOPPER IS PUBLISHED BY THE BRITISH MUSEUMPRESS AT £24 (PAPERBACK) AND £40 (HARD-
BACK). WWW.BRITISHMUSEUM.ORG
Castel Sant’Angelo - Hadrian’s mausoleum
HIV is the fastest growing serious health condition in the UK today with upwards of 7,500 new cases diagnosed in 2007 alone.Terrence Higgins Trust is at the forefront of the fight against HIV and poor sexual health, working with both individuals andcommunities to raise awareness and understanding, and to provide support and guidance to individuals to empower them tomake decisions around their own sexual health needs.
Health Promotion Officer (x2)Brighton • £6,241 - £8,394 • 12 hours per week • Ref: EWS039Working in our dynamic health promotion team, you will have great interpersonal and communication skills. This is anopportunity to develop your skills and experience in gay men’s sexual health promotion and you’ll be out and about on thescene taking part in outreach events and informing men about HIV and sexual health. You will need to enjoy talking to people andworking as a part of a team. You’ll have energy and enthusiasm, a good understanding of issues relating to sexual health and HIV,and a willingness to learn.Closing date: Tuesday 8th July 2008. Interviews: To be confirmed
www.tht.org.ukMost people think about sex every six seconds.We'd like you to concentrate much harder on it.
To apply online and for information on allvacancies go to:http://www.tht.org.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ For enquiries email [email protected] the relevant reference number. We are committed to equal opportunities and particularly encourageapplications from people with HIV and people from black and minorityethnic communities.
(Registered charity number 288527)
INTERVIEW
The relationship between the gay community and the police has, historically, been strained (to say the least). Thankfully, bridges are well and truly being built and, in cities such as Brighton and Bristol, improved relations are reducing anti-gay incidences. As the Bristol initiative, SceneWatch, celebrates its first birthday, Adam Tayler finds out how things are changing...
GAYBOURHOOD WATCH
(1) Email your answer to [email protected] giving your name, address & daytime phone number. (2) Text your answer to 07775 630 594 with your name & address. (3) Pop your answer on a nice postcard with a contact number and send it to: 3SIXTY Competition, 4 Steine Street, Brighton BN2 1TE (4) Mark your entry with the name of the prize you want to win!
The prize is non-transferable and there is no cash alternative. Usual 3SIXTY competition rules apply (available on request). Closing date for entries is Mon 7 July
Three lucky winners will win three books each! To be in with a chance of winning, answer this question:
What is James Lear, author of The Palace of Varieties,also known as?a) Rupert Scottb) Rupert Smithc) Ru Paul(*hint: see the interview with him in this issue)
PSYCHIC/COMPETITION
36 |
TO ENTER ANY OF THE COMPETITIONS IN THIS ISSUE:
KATIE PRICEThere’s a start of a new chapter in Katie’s life over the next 6 months. A clear out of all the crap is on the cards, and I really want to see her properly enjoying herself. She loves the feeling of having the stabil-ity of her family around her and being a major part of that, but I sense that she feels her own personality is passing her by, almost like she has conformed to something and not had her complete say on the matter. Rekindling wedding vows to mend past dramas may not neces-sarily be the answer. I don’t feel she is having enough fun.
The crunch time will be a huge oppor-tunity coming up for her - something that she is very passionate about. This will arise but someone close will try their hardest to stop her. I want to see her tak-ing control of herself over the next few months, her family lifestyle is beautiful, but there is freedom needed here, before she goes completely insane. A home abroad with white flowers in the garden will be her sanctuary.
Celebrity ReadingsSARAH JESSICA PARKEREven though she is a powerful individual now anyway, over the coming months, Sarah will become even more so. There are some defi-nite feuds going on in her life at the moment that are greater than most people realise.
I’m seeing a major solo project coming up for her, and I almost want to say people will be able to have a piece of her as she will become very accessible.
I feel that her son is psychic and she questions this.
Current dramas or bitterness that occur in her life will start to influ-ence her work. There will be a health scare with her that many people will be able to relate to.
And stress and maybe depression may cause her to take some time out. Bring on the autobiography!
SHAYNE WARDI see the next 6 months for Shayne as being
one of big change, with home and work. He’s going to be getting down and working on
a joint project with another major artiste, pos-sibly Timbaland. With personal relationships his
emotions will be on overdrive, the opportunity to take things further with a long-term vulner-
able pushy partner, possibly an engagement or marriage (sorry guys). But is this what he really
wants? A message from his Nan, in spirit, tell’s me that singing is not just his only talent and dancing is where he’s truly gifted and she loved to watch him dance. Embarrassment also come’s through with some of his past efforts in the industry and things not going as well as planed. I think Shayne will make a move to rural location and have little home time for some R&R. Some doors maybe slammed in his face along the way, but a new PR will ring a fresher new outlook for him...
GAVIN CROMWELL’S
Roll up, roll up! It’s summer, and it’s beach time, so it’s time to dig out those sandals, bucket and spade and brilliant books to keep you occupied on the beach... 3SIXTY is giving away three copies of James Lear’s fantastic The Palace of Varieties (erotic fiction with a plot) and Andre Aciman’s Call Me By Your Name (‘the perfect summer read”). For reviews of these two books, see our Bookworm column in this issue. Also, what gayboy’s trip abroad is complete without the Spartacus International Gay Guide? A copy of the 2008 edition will go to three lucky winners!
BOOKS TO TAKE TO THE BEACH!THE BEST SUMMER READS
Now imagine you’re on an island surrounded by palm trees and the gentle sound of breaking water... Or you’re in a small courtyard with the traffic from a busy a road rushing by, either way you can get ‘the look’, thanks to our glamorous friends at Habitat. by Harvey Gillis
Be Director for a day, Africa Chair £35
Hammocks are the way forward if you want that truly Thai island experience: Hoa string hammock £29, Sommeil printed Double hammock £39, Peake double urbanprint hammock £79
When the sun starts to fade... light up the place with garden flares in pretty colours - you can put them in a gay rainbow pat-tern - or not. Garden flares £5, Orba T light holder £4
Would you like Ice?Alana ice crusher £39
Set the scene with these fabulous fake leaves-and no watering! Floreo leaves from £3
SUMMER EYEWEAR Whether constantly getting papped or just trying to shield your beautiful peepers from those harmful rays you gotta get a decent pair of shades.They’re starting off on the high street at silly prices so go get yourself a new pair....or 6. by Harvey Gillis
Cool calm and collected....Sunglasses
£12.99 at River islandWith prices like these you can afford them in every colour, Sunglasses £12 all at Topman
OOooo,this fella looks like Beverly hills
21910’s Jason Priestly and dresses like
him...who? exactly! Sunglasses £12 at
Topman
This Maui deckchair brings them bang up to
date £39
These little puppies hit the nail right on the head. Sunglasses £12 from Topman
Lifes a Beach’
3SIXTYTRAVEL
South Beach you may already know. Art Deco delights on every corner, the sands as exquisite as the men. And while
a boy could happily spend a week or so reclined on a sun lounger in such salubrious surroundings, the city itself has an amazing amount to offer.
Take Bal Harbour Shops, for in-stance. Situated in a sort of mini Beverly Hills, this outdoor mall boasts a welter of designer bou-tiques, as well as a destination res-taurant, not for the food (which is excellent) but for the parade of rich, perfectly dressed and seemingly unemployed hotties stepping out of expensive European sports cars.
Or Vizcaya Museum, an Italian Renaissance-style mansion in ten acres of formal gardens, the collections of original European interiors all mashed together in a way you would only see in America.
The work of a confi rmed late 19th century bachelor who made millions in farm machinery, it is so eye-wateringly over the top, most gays will adore it.
Much like London, Miami is an organic city, always grow-ing and changing. It too went through some tough times in the 1980s, dealing with a mass infl ux of Cuban immigrants and drugs gangs attracted by its proximity to the Caribbean and Central America.
Like London, it has bounced back with a vengeance. The climate certainly helps, and the city’s residents are not
only as friendly as you would expect Americans to be, but genuinely chilled out.
The design district is well worth checking out. A proto-Hox-ton, its cool art galleries and Ethiopian restaurants are at the centre of a relatively rundown neighbourhood that in a few year’s time will be the hottest property in the city.
Miami is rightly famous for its Cuban food, but being the most South American-infl uenced city in the US, there are a huge range of cuisines available, and all at prices that are af-fordable. Not to mention the portions, which would generally feed a family of four.
If you have pounds in your bank account, most things in
America are surprisingly afford-able.
Hotels, which range from 1930s Art Deco nostalgia like Circa 39 to 21st century minimalist luxury such as the new, beach-adjacent and fabulous Gansevoort South, cost at least a third less than anything comparable in the UK.
There are dozens of charming lit-tle neighbourhoods dotted through-out the city, such as Coconut Grove. More beautiful people of both sexes and more Lamborghinis than you would have thought possible.
Head back to Miami Beach for the clubs. There are a range of gay venues, with Score hosting hot, housey sounds - and men - or just sit outside in the heat of the Miami night and watch the thongs go past.
Miami Beach comes alive at night, and even at two or three in the morning there are hundreds of people on the streets.
Twist, which is a few minutes from Score by cab, features among its warren of rooms and bars everything from pool tables and bored semi-naked dancers to Cubans performing dashing same-sex tangos.
The gay scene is, unsurprisingly, very chilled out and the punters easy to talk to.
Miami has been home to a sizeable gay population for many years, and especially in Miami Beach, where many gay and lesbian residents of all ages settle.
Do not neglect the eccentric offerings of the city - chief among them the World Erotic Art Museum near Ocean Drive, which is in fact housed in an upstairs retail area.
Kooky but impressive, the collection belongs to an elderly woman who spent years putting it together and will show you around her pride and joy with unnerving aplomb.
There is a buzzing theatre scene too, and the annual Mi-ami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival every April is one of the world’s best.
The fl ight from the UK is nine hours, but when you get there the tropical climate, stunning ocean views, all contrast-ing with the intoxicating atmosphere one of America’s fast-est-growing cities, makes it all worthwhile.
Beach Body Lovely
ARTART
artARTart
PRIDEOXFORD
www.oxfordpride.org.ukSATURDAY 12 JULY 2008
