A bunch of Wild Things

I watched "Where The Wild Things Are" yesterday because I was really curious about how they would stretch more or less 10 sentences into a 90-minute movie. All the hype and the buzz about this movie certainly inflated my expectations, so I went into the moviehouse with quite a bit of excitement. However, I was also bracing myself for immense disappointment, since it goes without saying that most movies never live up to the hype. I'm looking at you, Avatar in IMAX 3D.

Well, I most definitely wasn't disappointed. The movie certainly took the book's theme to heart and even dared to push it into even darker territory, so much so that the MTRCB gave it a PG-13 rating. It's unsettling, sometimes menacing, and yet still infused with lots of charm and real emotion.

The soundtrack is really good too -- I'm in the process of downloading it as I type this. The performances were also great, most especially Max Records, who plays Max. I know, what a coincidence.

Would definitely recommend that you guys watch this in a theater. Unfortunately, it only seems to be playing at Greenbelt 3. Anybody else know where you can catch this film?

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Do you guys remember Daniel Brusilovsky? He's the 16-year-old tech writer and CEO who I briefly wrote about here.

Well, he got fired from his writing job at TechCrunch because he accepted a Macbook Air for a bribe. Goodness.

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Also, in not so surprising news, a male model offered to "suck (a policeman's) dick and balls" after getting arrested for being drunk and disorderly.

The male model just happens to be 19-year-old Nick Snider, who is the current face of Prada.

At least he still got the stank face on even in the mug shot.

"It's a fucking concert!"

My understanding of concerts has always been this: the performer does his thing, and the crowd goes wild. it's a pretty simple dynamic, and something that I am really, really fond of. It's one of the few instances in life where it is absolutely encouraged that you stand on chairs and scream your hearts out.

As everyone of my Twitter followers found out last night, I was at the Kris Allen concert. While it started out a little low-key with Boyce Avenue, the crowd was getting pretty pumped by the time the Jabbawockeez performed, and it would have been a cakewalk to get them into a frenzy once Kris Allen went out.

But all throughout the concert, if anybody so much as stood up ON THE GROUND, security personnel would walk up and ask us to sit down because the people at the back couldn't see. There were also people from behind shouting "Sit down, we can't see!" It got so annoying that I would routinely shout back "Stand on the chairs then, it's a fucking concert!" We got asked to sit down so many times I just gave up and tweeted for most of the show.

I haven't been to a lot of concerts, but all of the ones I've been to had security AND audiences who were absolutely cool with you standing up to show your appreciation. You happen be blocking their view? Fine, they'll stand on the chairs. Even THE CLICK FUCKING FIVE audience understood this dynamic.

And to top it all off I ended up being one of those people at every concert who end up misplacing some of their stuff and never finding them again. Perhaps I was being too obnoxious when I told them to stand on the chairs? But you see, I never thought I'd have to reason to ever say those words AT A FUCKING CONCERT.

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From left, Ruhal Ahmed, Brandon Neely, Shafiq Rasul

Guantanamo guard and inmate become Facebook friends.I know, this story is a month old. But isn't it amazing? These two probably got along better than I did with those concertgoers.

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A Contract for the Gay Guy/Straight Guy Friendship.

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Lesbian Albatrosses Raising Chick Together.

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They're going to be teaching drag at Brazil's first gay school.

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Finally, I know there are some Ben Whishaw and/or Brideshead Revisited fans on my flist, so perhaps you may be interested in this article from Out. Brian Moylan from Gawker indirectly came out in that article, specifically because of this exchange:

While he might reject labels -- his character in Cock declares that the labels gay and straight are “words from the ’60s made by our parents…only invented to get rights” -- the coincidence of appearing in consecutive plays (Cock and The Pride) that explore sexuality might suggest a subconscious desire to discuss his own identity. Are the plays a way to make a statement without making a statement?

“Maybe it’s subconscious, I don’t know,” he says. “It’s intriguing to me that these parts come along. Of course the choices you make express something about you to the world, and of course the work I do is all about me, but rather than me standing up and making statements about myself and things, I’d prefer to let the work do the speaking.”

This part of the article is also interesting;

Whether this is a disingenuous fudge or a heartfelt response from a man who, at 29, still seems something of a boy, Whishaw is not oblivious to the complex and painful issues that the question raises. Asked if he thinks it’s important for young gay people to have positive role models, his ambivalence vanishes. “I really agree with that, and I feel in my heart that it’s important, but I don’t quite know yet the way to go about that. Maybe that’s the transitional thing I feel I’m in the middle of at the moment. It’s something I think about, but it’s important for me to do it at the time that’s right for me. And I’m not there yet.”

What do you guys think? Gay or Nay?

Possibly groundbreaking things

There was a big fire yesterday, as most of you know. It was so big, you could see the smoke all the way from our office building.

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Work was really exciting today, as we just finished a photoshoot with Rica Paras, who along with Justine Ferrer made Philippine television a much friendlier place for transfolk.

Rica isn't just fun to have around, she's fiercely intelligent as well. She was very articulate during the interview and held nothing back, and was game with anything that we asked her to do.

And to see how people would react to her! We shot some of the photos at a high school near the office, and male and female students would follow her around and had no qualms at all telling her that they loved her. It was such a beautiful thing to watch.

Another great thing: When this issue goes out, our paper will be the first one in the country with a trans person featured prominently on its pages. At least as far as I know.

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Gay teen worried he might be Christian. I quote:

""I don't know what's happening to me," Faber admitted to reporters Monday. "It's like I get these weird urges sometimes, and suddenly I'm tempted to go behind my friends' backs and attend a megachurch service, or censor books in the school library in some way. Even just the thought of organizing a CD-burning turns me on."

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Pope says gays endanger humanity. I won't even bother with you, Papa Razzi.

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Channing Tatum's meat is well done. I quote once again:

"Channing Tatum's penis is gross. It looks like a hot dog that's been left too long on the grill. The tip is hot-pink, singed, and shriveled. It appears angry. And it's painful to view. My penis hurts just from looking at it. Movie stars tend to be vain, by nature and profession, but Chan—that's what everyone calls him—does not mind one bit showing me his sad, withered wiener. 'It was the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life,' he says, flipping through photos on his iPhone until he lands on a grainy snapshot of a scorched member. His scorched member. 'I'm good . . . now,' he says with a grin. 'Now my penis is fantastic! One hundred percent recovered. Put me back in the game, Coach.'"

Koalas and walruses and Bear Grylls, oh my!

Getting back to work after the holidays has been a little rough for me. Nothing to do with my colleagues, of course, mostly just me having a hard time shaking off the holiday mindset. I'll hopefully be back in working mode by next week.

Work has certainly not been stuck in the holiday spirit. Just this past week, we had two celebrity interviews, with loads more coming next week. I really should start shaping up before I get myself fired or something.

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It's been a mixed bag with regards to the gay marriage question all around the world. While Martha Stewart and Portugal are okay with the gay, New Jersey voted 20-14 against gay marriage.

Oh well. I guess it's better than nothing?

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Scientists say dolphins should be treated as "non-human persons"

I am reminded of Douglas Adams and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

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Videos under the cut for you guys, ranging from koala sex shows to walrus self-pleasuring to Bear Grylls giving himself an enema. Yes, you are reading everything correctly.

Two female koalas put on a sex show wile Andy Roddick is being interviewed.

Presented with no comment.

I should really start watching this show. I swear.

Holiday homophobia, pregnant weightlifters, and pretty books

The holidays are just around the corner, and while that may mean a less stressful workload for most people, I'm not sure I can say the same for those of us in the office. Things haven't slowed down at all with regards to work, and we're not even sure if we're going to get Christmas off. I'm hoping for the best, though.

It's that same work week crunch that's prevented me from putting anything up on the blog until today. Throughout the past two weeks I've amassed quite a number of open tabs, some of which I've already had to discard because the news is stale already.

There is also the fact that nothing really exciting is going on with my life. I was supposed to go to a party yesterday, but my ride had to leave before I could leave the office. So there's that.

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As most of you guys know, reviewing books is part of what I do at my job. When I first started doing this, I was given instructions not to be so hard on local authors, especially when they were just starting out. Through the years, I've been given more freedom to write what I really think of a book, and I'm immensely thankful for that.

Being free to sat what I want does have its drawbacks: Saying a book sucks balls is bound to get a reaction from the author. Thankfully, I've only had one author go after me because of a bad review, and her points weren't very good ones at all.

Besides, the irate author I got is nothing compared to Candace Sams, who I believed is often referred to as "Crazy Lady". Her book, Electra Galaxy's Interstellar Fellar is given a one star review on Amazon and she goes nuts. I would recommend following Making Light's suggestion and "Remember to click on all the links that say Customers don’t think this post adds to the discussion. Show post anyway.'"

Trust me, it's an absolute trainwreck. The only thing I have to complain about is that Sams flounces away after page 19.

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"White Horse, Gold Dragon", written by "Lan Pam Thi"

The author name is in quotes because it turns out that "Lan Pam Thi" doesn't actually exist, or at the very least, didn't even write the book. This wouldn't normally be a problem, except the book won a prestigious literary prize in the Czech Republic.

Read the full story over here.

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Homophobe and notorius money-grubber Oral Roberts is finally dead.

He has this to say about gay sex: "The waste matter comes out of the body as poison, and he penetrates that part of the body in homosexuality. It's not to be put in the mouth of the man, or the mouth of the man or the woman…. It is the male organ, penetrating the vagina of the woman, the male and the female."

Here's a great response from one of the commenters on Gawker: "Isn't it fascinating how these folks like Mr. Anal Bob really seem to have the most vivid imaginations as far as what the sex lives of so called sinners are like?

A gay guy is like, 'yeah, I thought this guy was attractive, we went back to his place and had sex.'

Oral Dick here thinks like 'he drooled long spindles of saliva across his chest as he took the hard veined, throbbing penis across his moist lips, into the cavernous wet mouth, suckling the tip with his tongue, aching, throbbing, praying to the heathen gods for the seeds of sin to splatter his wide eyed eyes with hell fire. This is wrong. Insert penis in vagina. Ejaculate. Rinse. Repeat. Amen.' Ugh. Rest in a world without heaven or hell because neither exists, dumb fuck. Peace out!"

Also, what kind of evil parents would name their kid "Oral"? I mean, REALLY.

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In other gay news, you can now get gay married in the District of Carolina. New York may have been a disappointment, but at least there is still some progress being made.

Which is more than I can say for the Comelec, which rejected Ang Ladlad's appeal to be allowed to run for party list. Here's hoping that the Supreme Court comes up with a much more favorable ruling.

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A weightlifter in Chile gives birth during practice while a dad in England delivers a baby using Google.

Sometimes I love the world.

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PRETTY.

I am so happy that I haven't completed my collection of Nabokov novels, because that means I can still get to buy these beautiful editions. You can find the rest of the covers here.

Them crazy kids!

I envy this kid's room.

After all, how many 14-year-olds do you know of that have posters of Blue Velvet on their walls, much less even know what Blue Velvet is?

It's also admirable how he's managed to wrap his mind around his family life -- he's the son of a gay man and a straight woman -- and just seems to be enjoying being a teenager in New York City.

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This guy is certainly enjoying being a teenager as well.

He's a student from St. Peter's Secondary School in Canada, and he was photographed by the Toronto Metro making a splash at the Kinsmen Santa Claus parade. In such an unintentionally funny way.

Because you see, it's not just an ordinary picture of a student frolicking with his classmates under a spray of water. It's a picture of a student WITH HIS PENIS HANGING OUT, frolicking with his classmates under a spray of water.

And he's certainly not ashamed of what's on display, if the commenters on the Torontoist are to be believed.

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When you've got the words "forever-flaccid penis" and "group fisting" in a letter meant for your previous superiors, then you know it's going to be a great read.

The previous management at The Harvard Crimson appears to be composed of ginormous tools, if the group e-mail sent out by staffers is to be believed. Maybe some day, when I retire, I can be so ballsy as to write something like that.

Band Aid

I think it's been more than a month now since I last put up a post, and trust me when I say it's not from lack of trying. It's just that the past month at work has been incredibly taxing, what with a co-worker going on maternity leave when our group is understaffed already, and I've had to do a lot of extra work.

It hasn't been all bad, though. Just yesterday I was covering Rock Ed Philippines' Rock The Riles, an annual event held in celebration of International Human Rights Day. There were about 120 bands scattered in eight stations of the Metro Rail Transit, and while it was tiring making my way from station to station, it certainly was exhilarating to listen to these bands play and have the opportunity to dance and sing and just make a fool of oneself on the train stations without having to worry about being cuffed by guards.

The week before that, I was coordinating with Rock Ed for a project our section was working on for our office, which involved me helping organize a concert featuring four bands. Definitely not the easiest thing in the world to accomplish -- I was running around wringing my hands up until the very last minute.