Transformation Tuesdays just got a whole lot QTer…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!

Louvel

Age: 22

Location: Brooklyn, New York

About: “By day, I’m just your average gay-mer, but by night, I transform into the sirenic synth mistress, Louvel! I’m all about shapeshifting to whatever I can think of. Some might call me gender noncommittal!

Instagram: IAMLOUVEL

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Antonio Bandares was in the house. Sexy in-person.

Yesterday I was Sandra Bernhard‘s guest for the hour on her new radio show Sandyland on RadioAndy (Andy Cohen, that is) on SiriusXM. (That’s mouthful, huh?) You know SiriusXM radio is a subscriber service with tons of channels and it all happens, like a lot of broadcast thing in New York, it a cramped office building in midtown Manhattan. Right off Sixth Avenue, down the street from where I had my last two full time jobs as Art Director of Us Weekly and Executive Creative Director of OK! magazine. But those days are behind me now as I left publishing 10 years ago, this summer, to become a full-time artist.

So, you ask, “Are you THAT famous that Sandra Bernhard want to interview you?” Hardly, kids. Sandy’s new show in her own words is not about fame…

“It’s stream-of-conscious. So far, it’s been very personal: I play a bit of music, and then a guest comes on and they’ve stayed a long time. I’ll take some phone calls, but I don’t want that to be the main event.

I really want to reflect what’s great about our culture and shine a light on working class heroes and people who get up every day and bust their asses—who are interesting and interested in the world.”

Of course, I was thrilled to be asked on. I never think I have that much going on but when I wrote it all down, it sounded like I’m busy. I guess I am. I write this blog everyday, I have a fashion collaboration with Print All Over Me and International Playground being sold for Spring ’16, a new print for online art site 20×200 and I’m in an exhibit on the LES called Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory at Howl! Happening Gallery, among other things…

So, I’m in the lobby waiting to go on and there’s a electronic board that says “SiriusXM Welcomes…” with a read-out of the big guests of the day. Needless to say, mine was not among them, but sitting there I did see Antonio Bandaras come by to get his picture taken after his interview, James Brolin saunter in with his “people” (Not Barbra) and then the king walked by. Howard Stern. A month from now, Stern’s contract is up for renewal and this has sparked a lot of angst among Sirius investors. Some argue that Sirius could continue to flourish without him, but this is still the House that Howard built and would suffer BIG subscriber losses if he was no longer there.

Anyway, this of no concern to me as I’m about to go on live radio and they will bring me in during the broadcast, not before. So, her producer, Lisa Mantineo, comes to get me and I do know the drill a little bit. I did The Judith Regan Show on Saturday (Halloween) Judith and I are working on a book right now and I mentioned I was going on Sandy’s show and she invited me on hers as a trial run. I was very helpful. I learned not to respond to comments as people were talking, like “yeah” or “Uh-huh” are jarring to the listener. Not sure that I’ve mastered it yet. Otherwise, I can blab on and on… no problem.

And that’s what we did. The show is called “Sandyland” and I made a joke that I wanted to go “on all the rides” but it’s not a bad metaphor, really. It’s both fun and scary… a bit of a rollercoaster. Most segments in TV or radio are so specific and on topic that stream-of-conscious doesn’t work, but that’s not this show. Like real conversation, no one is trying to direct it, and one just trys to get a word in edge-wise. Sandy has said…

“I want people to come in with energy —who can carry on a conversation. But I don’t want the same people on all the time. Again, they don’t have to be hot, hot, hot necessarily, but evergreen—and always interesting and always great.”

She had been to Ingrid Sischy‘s memorial the night before. Ingrid was the editor of Artforum and later Interview magazine and she really was the crossroads of art, fashion and culture in Manhattan foir decades. She and her wife Sandy Brandt (they married right before Ingrid’s death) lived in a brownstone around the corner from me. This tribute was A-list all the way; Elton John sang Mona Lisa’s and Mad Hatters“, Baz Lurman read a not from Nicole Kidman, Graydon Carter, the editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair (where I found out that Sandy’s girlfriend, Sara Switzer and I had both worked but not at the same time) It took place at MoMA and was very emotional and spurred us to talk about old Manhattan and how the city had changed, the Pyramid club and on and on…

I brought a framed collage of an “S” for her, which she said she loved and I believed here. We talked a bit about my work but that was only a few minutes. Most of the 45 minutes or so we just chatted going from topic to topic. The interview ended with Sandy asking me back on the show to talk about the book when it comes out (hopefully next fall) and I said “Great!” asking if I did OK? To which she replied…

“It’s not an audition…”

I said I thought I was kinda auditioning to be the sort of friend who when running into her on the street, could say,

“Hey, Sandy! How’s it going?”

In that case she said, I passed. OK, so we are not going out for dinner just yet…. ovver the first hurdle ,though. I know that she lives in Chelsea, so I’ll have to find out where so I can accidentally “bump into” her. During the interview I praised her incredible film debut in Martin Scorsese‘s King of Comedy. In it she, along with Robert DeNiro, stalk Jerry Lewis. She strips and they tie him up in one of THE craziest kidnap sequences ever. No, no. That’s not where I’m going with this. I think I’ll see her next month at a safe distance – and you can too!

She is doing her annual end-of-the-year run at Joe’s Pub from Dec. 26 to Dec. 31, two shows a night. I might ring in the New Year with her show which is called #blessed. Aren’t we all? You can get tickets here.

And listen to my interview with is archived. If you aren’t a subscriber, you can get a free trial here. Sandyland is live weekdays 12-1PM on SiriusXM on RadioAndy.

The post #Sandyland: So, I Was a Guest on Sandra Bernhard’s SiriusXM Radio Show… appeared first on World of Wonder.

Atlanta is booming and women are taking over the real estate game. Tensions rise as seven realtors compete to claim their stake in prime ATL properties. With clients ranging from NFL players and music industry giants to CEOs and foreign diplomats, these boss women use their business acumen and large personalities to close deals. When the Old & New South clash and alliances shift, can profits prevail over personal drama?

The post There’s Only 2 More Days Until The Premiere Of “Selling It: In The ATL!” Watch the Series Teaser Now! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Weird but inappropriate go together here like peanut butter and jelly on a shoe. A Swedish educational video intended to teach children about menstruation. Alex Hermansson, one of the Barnkanalen children’s channel’s young hosts, sings The Period Song. And then there’s this guy singing about penises and vaginas. All of this might be traumatic to a child, I’m afraid. Maybe not, but as an adult it’s a lot of fun. Watch.

(T/Y Tad)

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What are we going to do with Shane? He is constantly undermining every bit of training we’ve subjected him to. I guess firing him is not an option. Why? I don’t know…?

The post “Shane, Stop Putting Out Samples Labeled as ‘Mystery Meats!'” appeared first on World of Wonder.

Mapplethorpe Self-Portrait

November 4, 1946– Robert Mapplethorpe:

“When I have sex with someone I forget who I am. For a minute I even forget I’m human. It’s the same thing when I’m behind a camera. I forget I exist.”

The Husband said:

“I have seen his work at museums in the USA, but, to experience Robert Mapplethorpe in Venice was just too perfect. You should mention this in your post today”.

We arrived via water taxi in Venice in October, 1992. Banners were hung all around this most amazing of cities announcing a retrospect of the American artist’s work. The exhibit was held at the Mariano Fortuny Museum, fabulous & a story in itself. How odd to consider this important Gay American artist in another city other than his own beloved NYC. Mapplethorpe’s work deserves a place with the great classic works of art. The Fortuny exhibit was, at the time, the largest retrospect of his work ever mounted.

In summer 2011, I spent time with the very readable Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir of the artist/musician/writer’s friendship, romance & time spent with the Mapplethorpe. Smith & Mapplethorpe, lived a particular New York dream: The Chelsea Hotel, Max’s Kansas City, Andy Warhol, CBGB, superstardom, & they lived it to the fullest. I have written many times on my love of 20th century photography, & this man’s work & his life still hold my full attention.

Last year, while incapacitated by chemotherapy, I tackled the hefty (at nearly 500 pages) highly readable Wagstaff: Before & After Mapplethorpe, A Biography by Philip Gefter. Sam Wagstaff was a memorable character. A handsome aesthete who had abandoned several careers, including stints as an important museum curator, before reinventing himself as the champion of Photography as a Fine Art instead of the long held premise that it was a practical, mechanical craft.  Wagstaff was also Mapplethorpe’s champion, curator, mentor, lover & cocaine buddy.

Mapplethorpe’s photographs, ranging from graphic depictions of gay sex to exquisite portraits of flowers, were all over the artistic map. His work is magnificent in its scope, frequently shocking, & ultimately very beautiful. Even his more extreme photographs have a certain tenderness about them, & the seemingly harmless pictures generate an edginess that’s difficult to dismiss.

Simultaneously devoted to a strict sense of formalism & composition & to bringing a new iconography of homosexuality, it was not a surprise that Mapplethorpe provoked so much controversy in his era.

Mapplethorpe has become the essential “gay photographer.” His homoerotic photographs continue to be disturbing to many people. He made no concessions to the closet. His works are not disingenuous or discombobulated. He brought a captivating & challenging version of his vision to the world & the fashion world bounced his message back to the mainstream.

Mapplethorpe’s photographs have the rare ability to give the most common subjects the status of icons. He didn’t use the camera as a documentary tool but more as an instrument of innovation & role playing. In companion pieces he shows himself as a tough macho guy in a leather-jacket & as a sizzling femme fatale.

Aside from being one of the planet’s most influential photographers, Mapplethorpe, together with his lover Wagstaff, amassed a world-class collection of  photography on an enormous scale. Mapplethorpe also collected furniture, fabric & artifacts. An esthete of wide-ranging tastes, he also made sculptures & designed furniture. One of his own coffee tables was a centerpiece of Mapplethorpe’s exquisitely decorated apartment in Downtown Manhattan.

At the very apex of his career in 1987, he was diagnosed with HIV. Mapplethorpe became a symbol of bravery & defiance to the virus. His willingness not to hide his illness helped focus attention on AIDS when much of the world was ignoring the plague. Never shy of celebrity, his status as an art world icon infected with the virus changed how the public looked at his photographs. His passing in 1989, at just 42 years, gave his short life a special symbolic significance.

Before he left this existence, Mapplethorpe established The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, providing funding & focus for medical research, with an emphasis on AIDS/HIV, & for the visual arts, with an emphasis on photography.

Mapplethorpe’s photographs are in the collections of the world’s greatest museums including The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Museum Of Modern Art, The Guggenheim, & The Pompidou Center in Paris.

I feel that Mapplethorpe needs to be noted in history as Mapplethorpe: The Artist, not just as a Gay Artist. History will place him in the great tradition of World Classical Art, & like all of the greatest artists, he is both overrated & underrated.

Both the establishment art world’s view of photography & how the government funds the arts in America changed completely because of his work. His pictures continue to be accused of being obscene. So what? Mapplethorpe made art & porn the same thing. That is his greatest contribution.

For me, his most erotic pieces are his photographs of the sex organs of flowers. The work is startling. You can now Google the word “Mapplethorpe” & view the photographs that caused the conservatives to convulse. These right wingers who know nothing of art, but who somehow seem to know what is moral, have been able to successfully end much of the public funding for the arts & they often point their fingers at Mapplethorpe. The controversy seems a bit overblown in our own 21^st century. But, spend some time looking at Mapplethorpe’s photographs. They will offer proof that he continues to be cutting edge & original.

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Popular LGBT show EastSiders creator/star Kit Williamson has been deluged with tons of negative feedback since Season Two tackled the idea of a gay couple exploring an open relationship…which is weird that it took this long for the comments to role in, because for those who actually watch the show, this pretty much started from the beginning of the series, after main characters Cal (Kit Williamson) and Thom (Van Hansis) four year relationship was severed due to infidelity.

Anyway, Williamson recently spoke to The Advocate about his feelings about what he calls ‘slut-shaming’ by other gay men over the shows premise. And as far as I’m concerned, Williamson needed not respond to those internet trolls who are perhaps too befuddled to understand the difference between real life and fictitious characterization. Perhaps the premise is a bit too plausible for some, and that might ruin the fairy tale. In your 20s, you’re a newbie gay, partying, looking for Prince Charming. In your 30s, you’ve had one or two BFs already and it’s time to focus on career…if a man fits in with that, so be it. After 40, you pretty much have chilled out…no longer prisoner to fantasies…and no longer worried about what others think about your position in life, or what position you take in bed. GET A GRIP PEOPLE!!! If EastSiders’ premise is not your homonormative reality, good for you! However, as a “seasoned” gay man, this storyline is pretty spot on. Check out a portion of Williamson’s op-ed piece below.

Kit Williamson (via The Advocate):

The second season of my series EastSiders centers around a couple experimenting with opening up their relationship sexually. The first episode actually begins the morning after a couple’s first threesome, as they navigate the awkwardness of making coffee while a stranger takes a shower in the other room. Another episode includes a montage of threesomes as the characters explore their sexuality (and encounter a cavalcade of weirdos in the process).

The show isn’t making an argument for or against promiscuity, but I knew that some would assume that it did, probably because they didn’t make it past the fun stuff to the episode in the STD clinic.

I was prepared for some backlash, given the irreverence with which the subject is approached, but I was surprised to find the majority of the vitriol coming from other gay men. I pulled the following gems from the comments on an Outmagazine article about the show:

“Why the hell are you in an ‘open relationship’ to begin with if you’re going to hook up with other guys? so trashy!”

“Sluttiness and having multiple sex partner beside your boyfriend, for me it’s disgusting.”

“If you publicly announce you have an open relationship then be prepared for comments. I think an open relationship is bullshit. Ditto bisexuality.”

“You are a slut.”

“Skank!”

Many of the commenters expressed concern about gay men being viewed as promiscuous. If these commenters desire to combat stereotypes, then I’d suggest they start by not contributing to the stereotype that gay men are catty, bitter, backbiting queens. We all share a common struggle, and I believe we have a responsibility to be kinder to each other than society has been to us. Yes, some people are promiscuous — that doesn’t mean their stories are any less worthy of being told.

You can read the entire article HERE.

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Taylor Swift is being sued for $42 million by Jesse Braham, an American R&B singer who claims Swift stole his lyrics for her hit, Shake It Off.

Braham, who goes by the stage name Jesse Graham, alleges that Swift stole the words from his 2013 track, Haters Gone Hate. Let’s take a look at both sets of lyrics.

Taylor Swift:
Cause the players gonna play, play, play
And the haters gonna hate, hate, hate
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off
Heartbreakers gonna break, break, break
And the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake
Baby, I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake
Shake it off, Shake it off

Jesse Braham:
Haters gone hate, playas gone play. Watch out for them fakers, they’ll fake you everyday.

Doesn’t seem much of a case here, does it? He most definitely did not come up with the phrases “haters gone hate,” or “playas gone play.” Those have been part of popular culture for decades. However, a legal source explains.

“Mr. Braham, who is representing himself, cannot claim copyright protection for the phrases ‘haters gone hate’ and ‘playas gone play’ because the Copyright Act does not protect short phrases and these phrases are not original to him. In addition, and most damning to Mr. Braham’s claim, the two songs have absolutely nothing in common.”

To coin a phrase, Tay Tay, just shake it off. (via Huffington Post)

The post #HatersGonnaHate: Taylor Swift Being Sued for $42 Million for Allegedly Stealing “Shake It Off” Lyrics appeared first on World of Wonder.

Many things can cause Donald Trump. As you may know, the symptoms are HUGE! Jeff Wysaski of the Tumblr Obvious Plant added this hilarious fake health brochure about Donald Trump to a doctor’s waiting room.

(via Obvious Plant)

The post #ObviousPlant: Do You Suffer From “Donald Trump”…? appeared first on World of Wonder.

Adele covers the new Rolling Stone and opens up about her private life and how she wants to live.

On some level, Adele refuses to allow her success to make it too deeply past her skin. She still sees herself as “some random girl from London,” albeit one whose little car needs to be trailed by a bodyguard in a Range Rover. With the throwback classicism of its songwriting and its almost militantly organic arrangements, 21 stood to the side of the pop mainstream, even as it somehow outsold everything. Adele is trying to pull off a similar trick with her career itself.

“My career’s not my life,” she says. “It’s my hobby.”

She wants to be able to release her albums, live in public for a while, and then return to her private existence — for years at a time, maybe, so she can live enough to write the next set of songs.

Adele has been so busy the past few years that she’s only faintly aware of the newfound prominence of feminism in the pop-cultural discourse. “If there’s a movement, that’s great,” she says. “Who’s doing it? Will you ask me if I’m a feminist? I don’t think many men in interviews get asked if they’re feminist.”

I don’t ask the question, but she wants to answer anyway.

“I’m a feminist,” she says, sipping wine. “I believe that everyone should be treated the same, including race and sexuality.”

She recalls not being taken seriously in business meetings full of men, of encountering an attitude of “what do you know?”

“It’s like, ‘Well, I’m the fucking artist,’ ” she says, sitting up straighter in her chair. “ ’So I fucking know everything, actually! Like, don’t fucking talk down to me!’ ”

You can check out the rest of the story here.

Photo; Theo Wenner. If that names sounds familiar it’s because Theo’s Dad Jann, owns Wenner Media, which publishes Rolling Stone. FYI.

Adele’s first single off her album 25, is Hello which and been viewed almost a quarter of a BILLION times since it’s release last month.

(via Rolling Stone)

The post #QuoteUnquote: Adele Covers Rolling Stone, “My Career’s Not My Life. It’s My Hobby.” appeared first on World of Wonder.

We’re only a day away from the first episode of Selling It: In The ATL but last night in Atlanta, a group of lucky people got the opportunity to view a screening at the Woodruff Arts Center. The stars of the show, WEtv stars and executives, and other entertainment industry celebrities were in attendance to watch all of the drama unfold. The show revolves around seven fabulous high-end realtors based in Atlanta whose clients range from professional athletes to CEOs!

(Left to right: Sarah Lowe, Lauren Gellert, Tahlia Brown, Chrishena Stanley, Okevia, Marc Juris, Jae Christian, Gwen Boyd Moss, A’lana Banks)

Catch the premiere episode of Selling It: In The ATL Thursday, November 5 at 10/9c on WEtv!

The post The Ladies of “Selling It: In The ATL” Slayed The Gold Carpet At the Premiere! appeared first on World of Wonder.

Franco tackles Faulkner again, with the law of diminishing returns in full effect. The Sound and the Fury is one of the densest, most difficult books in the English language, and by all accounts, practically unfilmable. It chronicles the decline of the once-proud Compson family over three decades in Jefferson, Mississippi. Franco plays Benjy, the disabled Compson son, bringing to mind the immortal words of Robert Downey Jr in Tropic Thunder (look it up). Also in the cast, Franco’s stoner buddies Danny McBride and Seth Rogen, which does not bode well for a BIG SERIOUS MOVIE. I get that Franco wants to be taken seriously as an ARTIST who tackles GREAT LITERATURE, but if this is how he goes about it, maybe he should stick to Guitar Hero commercials.

Terrible reviews here, here, and here.

The Sound and the Fury is available On Demand now.

The post Oh Dear: The Trailer for James Franco’s Sound and the Fury Is Here and It’s Really, Really Awful appeared first on World of Wonder.

The one and only, the large and in charge Latrice Royale! Sign up for the newsletter on the RuPaul’s DragCon website to receive exclusive early access to tickets and VIP packages!

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November 5, 1960– Tilda Swinton. There are only a small handful of actors that compel me to watch a film just because they appear in it, but Katherine Mathilda Swinton Of Kimmerghame is certainly one of them. Swinton shifts effortlessly between ages, sexes, & aesthetics. Every performance has been a marvel, even playing a corpse in my favorite film of 2014, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. I totally dig her.

She possesses a look & disposition that are rather unworldly, or if she is from Earth, it must be that she is from another century. With her aquiline face, ghostly light blue eyes, haughty manner & uncommon self-assurance, she looks to me to have stepped out of a formal 19 century portrait of a noblewoman or man.

Indeed, Swinton is the daughter of Lord Lieutenant Of Berwickshire, Major General Sir John Swinton & her famous family’s lineage can be traced back to the 9th Century. She lives in an actual castle with a views of the Moray Firth in the small city Nairn in the North Highlands of Scotland.

“There’s something about being Scottish. You can’t find a Scottish person who won’t burst into tears when they hear the bagpipes. Even if they’re in Beverly Hills. I live in the far north of Scotland, which is so beautiful. We Scots love nature. I think we’re wired for the hills & sea. Where my family live is a very beautiful sort of semi-wilderness that really suits us. It’s so green. Sometimes, when I’ve been in America & I go home, it’s so green that I have to literally rub my eyes as I look out of the aeroplane window.”

Swinton claims that although she & her family live in a castle, she actually renounces consumerism & doesn’t even own a TV.

‘I’m not much of one for looking in the mirror. If I look good, it’s to do with good genes, living in the Highlands of Scotland, not wearing make-up when I don’t have to, & just the luck of the draw. I wear what I want to wear, & I am lucky to have friends who are designers who make me beautiful clothes to wear in public. But I turn into a pumpkin when I go home.”

From that home in remote Highlands Tilda managed to start an annual film festival, Ballerina Ballroom Cinema Of Dreams, using an old ballroom in Nairn to screen art-house & independent films. The festival brings films to the most remote parts of Scotland with a mobile cinema screen on a truck.

Swinton began her film career in gay filmmaker Derek Jarman’s gorgeous & demanding Caravaggio (1985). Since then, she has moved effortlessly between Indie films, arty fare & box-office hits.

Swinton won an Academy Award playing a buttoned-up, ruthless lawyer opposite George Clooney in Michael Clayton (2007). She is already a part of that fine tradition of especially talented, strong British female actors like Vanessa Redgrave, Dame Helen Mirren & Dame Maggie Smith who win awards & accolades working on stage & screen.

She has had a string of original & unusual performances in films: Vanilla Sky (2001), Adaptation (2002), Julia (2008), I Am Love (2009), The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008), We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011) & this summer’s Trainwreck (2015). She is noted for her strong performances as the White Witch in the Chronicles Of Narnia franchise (2005, 2008, 2010).

My own personal favorite Swinton performances include her Golden Globe nominated work in the overlooked, gay themed The Deep End (2001),  plus Burn After Reading (2008), Moonrise Kingdom (2012), & her crazy turn in Snowpiercer (2013).

Her most arresting work might just be playing someone of both sexes in director Sally Potter’s Orlando (1992) based on Virginia Woolf‘s novel, featuring Quentin Crisp as Queen Elizabeth I.

But it is not just her screen acting that attracts attention. Swinton is also a big star on the Red Carpet with her unconventional looks. She appears at premiers & benefits in a wide range of fashion ideas from Chanel to Bowie to Hepburn (Audrey & Katharine).

Her look is not just angular alien & androgynous, with her porcelain skin, short white-blonde hair, rangy 6 foot frame, but Swinton can also come across as old Hollywood glamourous. Avant-garde art is often the inspiration for fashions, but she can be as much Bacall & Bjork. We always are blown away by her presentation. Of course, the camera just adores Swinton’s unusual appearance.

“I’m not sure I know what people mean when they say I look different. Different from what? & if I do look different, so what? Vive la difference.”

Swinton says that she has been mistaken for a man on many occasions, especially at airport security.

“I think I should probably wear more lipstick.”

In spring 2013, Swinton slept in a box as part of an art exhibit called The Maybe at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. She first performed this performance piece in 1995 at London’s Serpentine Gallery & in 1996 at Museo Barracco in Rome, always generating large crowds.

I also thought she could not have been cooler than when she appeared with her doppelgänger David Bowie in The Stars, a supporting video for his 2013 album The Next Day. Swinton has been candid about how Bowie gave her the strength to overcome her insecurities about looking different when she was a teenager.

 “When I was 13 years old, I bought a copy of Aladdin Sane, even though I didn’t even own a record player. I had it for a year before I even heard it because I hadn’t bought it for the music but because of the cover. It was the image I was attracted to. He looked so like me, he could have been my cousin. He looked like he came from the same planet as me. It was a great comfort to me, looking as I did. It gave me great comfort at the time that not only did someone else look like this, but felt proud enough to stick themselves on the front of an album with a lightning zig-zag across their face. So he’s always felt like a cousin even though I’d never met him. Then, the phone rings one day & it’s someone who calls themselves David Bowie & you can’t stop pinching yourself.”

In 1984, fresh out of Cambridge, Swinton became a member the Royal Shakespeare Company. It was there that she met playwright John Byrne, who is 20 years older that Swinton. They became a couple, & then, the parents of twins. They remain very close, but they no longer live together.

In 2008, she met German artist Sandro Kopp, who is 18 years younger. For a few years Byrne, Kopp & Swinton lived together in that castle in Nair, with Byrne staying at home with the kids when she traveled with Sandro for her career. Swinton insists she never thought their arrangement was unconventional.

“It’s all quite boring really. The father of my children & I are close friends & I’m now in a very happy other relationship. We’re all really good friends. It’s a very happy situation. Life doesn’t have to be complicated. You just have to have compassion with yourself & stop blaming yourself when things do get complicated.”

To prepare for today’s #BornThisDay post, I had wanted to watch Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) the vampire flick written by Jim Jarmusch & starring starring Swinton & yummy Tom Hiddleston. But, I couldn’t find it on any of the 700 channels offered by the Evil Comcast or Netflix. This film comes highly recommended from my many friends with discriminating tastes.

I’d like to imagine that for her birthday, Swinton will be dressed in Edwardian garb, sipping tea & eating cake, but she could just as easily be in a metallic space suit holding forth on another planet with David Bowie. Do you go for Tilda Swinton?

The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Tilda Swinton appeared first on World of Wonder.

It started with a little tug –or a little “Tuggie” to be more exact. Amazon is selling a leopard print dick warmer (and a candy-stripe holiday version) but this isn’t anything new. This must have been started by women to decorate their guy’s junk, because this is NOT a gay thing, as far as I know. A little Google research and I dug up all sorts or knitted ones, animals, bananas and snakes. And of course, with all this dirty business, you gotta keep your willy clean so a circular “Weener Kleener” is a nice little stocking stuffer. But it doesn’t really matter how cute the cover is, it’s more about the guy wearing it. If it’s the right guy, an old tube sock will work just fine. (See last image.)

(T/Y Tad)

The post #PenisCozy: So, Cute Cock Warmers Are a “Thing” Now…? appeared first on World of Wonder.

Lady Bunny just sent us her latest video, a love letter to marriage equality and giant “Fuck You!” to Kim Davis. She says…

After electing a new GOP governor, I thought Kentucky could use a little cheering up with a giggle or two! Governor Bevin was a big supporter of Kim Davis, even visiting her in jail and rallying evangelical voters to her cause –which was refusing to do her job as a marriage clerk and wed gay couples in her county. My condolences to the 48% of the Kentucky electorate who voted against Bevin.

Warning: Don’t drink anything while viewing or you might just spit it out all over your laptop. Watch.

The post #LGBT: Lady Bunny Is “Going To the Chapel” (with a BIG F.U. to Kim Davis!) appeared first on World of Wonder.

If you ever saw 5 minutes of Lost In Space, you’d think Jonathan Harris, who played Dr. Zachary Smith on the 60s TV show was gay too. The Robinson’s Mom on the show, June Lockhart recalls that Jonathan did not try to “tone it down” either. She tells Cary Harrison that he was a hoot on set and she once laughed so much she was written out of 2 episodes as punishment –at full pay. Watch.

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A new study from GlaxoSmithKline Plc and Johnson & Johnson has found that a long-acting shot to suppress HIV worked as well as a combination of three daily pills. Patients in the trial got injections of two drugs, rilpivirine and cabotegravir, every four or eight weeks, while another group got a combination of daily pills. Paul Stoffels, J&J’s chairman of pharmaceuticals, said;

“Going from many pills a day –like 10, 20 pills a day– to now one pill, to now one injection every two months is I think a huge medical technical achievement.”

There is no cure for HIV, the virus is now subdued with a once-daily pill and a monthly or every-other-month injection could further alter treatment of the disease

There is still work to be done to improve the experimental injection as the drug needs to be refrigerated and requires too great a dose to be given in personally-injected shots at the moment. Stoffels, who started his career as a doctor in Africa focusing on research on HIV and tropical diseases, said:

“I was back in the late ’80s in Africa when the HIV epidemic was in full growth and was devastating.

It’s far too early to say anything about the pricing of this but, as always, I think we have been responsible pricing in this area so that is for later.”

In the trial, patients getting the injection every four weeks had viral suppression rates of 94 percent, and patients dosed every eight weeks had suppression rates of 95 percent. That compared with a rate of 91 percent in patients taking the daily pills.

Five percent of those on the four-week dose stopped taking the drug because of negative side effects. The most common negative side effect reported by patients was pain at the site of the injection. (via Bloomberg)

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NYC nightlife icon Gazelle has been showing her new award-winning documentary The Love Issue all around the world, and it’s finally hitting NYC this Friday!!! The film, directed by Cesar Terranova, is a look into Paulo’s alter ego Gazelle. After the death of his partner of seven years, Gazelle went deeper into her personal transformation, as she struggled with her own HIV status and mortality.The film depicts Paulo’s search to bring more meaning to Gazelle’s life. Paulo digs into his emotional depths and transforms them into artistic expression that plays with the past and present through symbolic use of references, from personal experiences and artistic iconography.

Gazelle is most known for her publication GAZELLAND– a documentation of the artists, photographers and designers of the gay nightlife communities in London, New York and Sao Paulo. Check out the trailer below, and if you’re in NYC this Friday (November 6), GO SEE THIS FILM!!! Tickets and more info available HERE.

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Philadelphia boxer Yusaf Mack, who initially claimed he was drugged into performing in a gay porn film, has come out;

“I’m gay. I’m tired of holding it in. It is what it is. I live my life.”

Last week, Mack, 35, retracted accusations that producers for The Dog Pound lied to him about the nature of the film and slipped a drug into his drink. He then claimed to be “bisexual”. In the new interview, though, Mack says he’s known he is gay for “about eight years” and calls the drug allegations ” a lie… to try to cover myself up.”

Mack says he was “down and out” when he agreed to shoot the film…

“I asked friends, they wouldn’t help me, so I did what I had to do.”

He never thought anyone he knew would see the film, but after the news broke,

“I couldn’t hide it anymore.”

He had thoughts of suicide.

“I was hurt. Like to myself. Then I think about my children, like how am I gonna explain this to my children. I called a couple of my friends and told them ’I’m thinking about killing myself.’”

Mack said friends have been supportive, but his 23-year-old daughter hasn’t been so accepting. She shocking told her father;

“Kill yourself. You embarrass us.”

Mack says he threw the phone down when she told him that.

“All I could say was, ‘You’re right.’”

But he seems to be on the road to self-acceptance.

“You don’t like me or love me, regardless I’m still me. When you see me on the streets, I’m still Yusaf Mack.”

There IS no shame, Yusaf. You’ve got 10 kids, so the law of averages says one of them is bound to be a homophobe. (Seriously, he has 10 children!) No joke, you’re a fighter. Keep up the good fight!

(via NewNowNext)

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