Sex in the "news"

Local scandal sheet "Investigate" last week claimed that Labour Party minister David Benson-Pope was a member of a Dunedin BDSM group called "Southern Kinx".
Just why Ian Wishart, editor of the magazine, would think that this somehow is a "scandal" eludes me. But linking the words "sex" and "scandal" is a typically Tory and Anglo-saxon invention. In all other countries people have sex lives instead.
The minister denied it quoting his already full diary to be able to attend the munches.

I have been to a number of these "munches", colloquial BDSM talk for having a tea party where instead of bringing biscuits and cake, you bring your favourite sex toy, toyboy/girl, magazines, and share your experiences with the others, or just have a good chinwag about what to do at the next (real) BDSM party.
It's all very innocuous and good fun, and I must say disappointingly, low in actual excitement or kinkiness - unless you regard wearing your favourite fetish costume as kinky.
The BDSM play parties are a very different kettle of fish and rather good fun, even if they are usually mostly heterosexual. There is very little (if any) actual sex and ther scenes always struck me (as it were) as hetero foreplay. For the assembled gayboys there is always the very edifying spectacle of watching those straight boys being handled by their mistresses. Highly recommended.

Free admission to all areas of culture

A virtual museum by Harald Seiwert has him queering a canon of art, such as the example on the left.
Oh, and remember my favourite sculpture of all time, "The Dying Gaul"? Seiwert's take on it is here.

Link through Nightcharm

What Difference Does It Make?

Victoria Coren, a columnist on the Observer newspaper, handled the subject of lonely heart columns in newspapers and their contemporary offshoot online and she compares their respective efficacity and style. She concluded that the online versions are far too specific in allowing people to put their "demands" and "wishes" in their potential soulmate. This leaves nothing to be discovered or explored once that soulmate is snared and can only lead to disappointment when all that is left to be found out is difference.

"New popularity or not, I remain stubborn in my suspicion that detailed classified ads are an excellent way to buy a car, and a terrible way to find a lover."

I think she's on to something here. In a general publication you have to be lyrical, concise and somewhat intriguing to elicit a response (she quotes several excellent and often hilarious examples) while online the proliferation of sexually specialist websites allows you to narrow down the criteria by which you will judge a potential partner, there may be simply no-one, at least no-one within traveling distance to make this more than a cyber-relationship, in the world that qualifies.

I put an ad once in a London gay newspaper, Capital Gay, some decades ago and it read:

"This charming man looking for sweet and tender hooligan to oscillate wildly."

I got several replies but only one stood out, written on a postcard:

"How soon is now?"

Pity there were no contact details.

The rugby player as an oil painting

All Black rugby player Anton Oliver (with a BMI of over 30) got his gear off to have his features immortalised in oils. It's a full back view rather than a full frontal, and if they hadn't said you'd be hard pressed to figure out who was the subject of the painting. His words on why he did it:

"I get naked around 30 guys every day, but getting a chap to paint me was making me squeamish'," he said."So, I thought I'd get out of my comfort zone and give it a go. No doubt I'll be the butt of a few caricatures and jokes, but I'm not too concerned about that."

It's a bit of a cop-out I think. I mean, mooning or showing arse has a long tradition among the sporting fraternity, and if he really wanted to get out of his "comfort zone" I would have recommended going frontal instead.

Google adSense does not see sense (but plenty of naughty stuff)

I got an email from one of the employees at Google responsible for policing their advertising placements on websites and blogs such as this one. It said:

While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies. [...] As stated in our program policies, AdSense publishers are not permitted to place Google ads on pages with adult or mature content. As a result, we have disabled ad serving to the site. [...]

What they refer to is a collection of posts I had labeled "porno". Not that those blogposts were pornographic in content (you know me better than that) but the Google man didn't check on that. The mere mention of the word porno seems to trigger an automated alert at Google HQ that this is a blog for adults with adult content. That sort of gormless automated alert generation is very much the essence of Google (from news items to best buys to advert placements) they built their business empire on. Good on them for raking in the cash that way but a little more human input into weeding out clearly faulty or nonsensical "alerts" would go a long way.
I wrote to them about their mistake but as long as they don't see sense you won't see any adverts here.

Jerusalem Pride

There is nothing surer to unite implaccably opposed sides as the planning of a gay pride march in Jerusalem. Orthodox Jews, Muslim imams and Christians are joining hands to try to prevent this pride event to take place. Middle East peace can only be based on an extermination covenant between the three Abrahamic religions against gay people? Am I the only one who thinks the world would have been better off for many millennia without those desert religions? If there is a clash of civilisations it's between the forces of ignorant bigotry and rational secularism. Freedom from religions is what our civilisation and human rights need.

Lift and separate

Men want to look bigger everywhere including what's in their trousers. aussieBum has created the 'Wonderjock' for men, suitably named 'Patriot'. It helps keep everything positioned forward and proudly on display to the world in a larger than normal manner.

A few Kiwi blokes put them to the test here. Looks like an updated budgie smuggler to me.

Something for the weekend, Sir?

Channing Tatum is completely hot.

Picture from Completely Naked.

Wowser alert

Keep it 18 and move it to 16. It's such an old issue.