the humble local freak

A little over 10 years ago, I posessed a collection of old issues of Gay Times. When we were about sixteen, a friend of mind paid for a year (maybe two year?) subscription in advance, thinking that there would be rather more wank material than there actually was (it remains a sad fact for him that there are no really just genuinely there-for-the-sex-pics gay equivalents of other 'Lad's Mags' to be found on the shelves of any of our local shops). He used to bring them into school for me, in their discretely white plastic envelopes, and I would read all the articles, make notes of the film festivals (and, if we're being brutally honest here, drool a little myself at the ocassional 'underwear model' photo shoots and the salacious phone lines at the back- anyone who has read my little fic The Vocabulophile will get the idea of the type of thing that you used to find there, and rather more embarrasingly, the sort of silliness that gets me rather steamed). The collection proved very useful over the years for my BA dissertation, though a few years ago I bravely recycled the vast majority as I realised that hoarding magazines in the bottom of an old cupboard was a dangerous thing to do coming from a family hardwired to have issues with 'stuff'.

Of course, working on a similar project for my MA I do rather regret having recycled away that large looming resource and have been buying the odd copy of Gay Times, Attitude and a new publication I rather like called Winq- the latter two can only be found in 'The Big Tesco' where Gay Times occasionally appears in Morrisons.

I have yet to see a gay magazine in Asda. Just saying, I do make a note of this kind of thing.

Anyway, back then in, say the early noughties, the personals column at the back of GT used to say things like 'SA M, 40 WLTM SA older male for fun & more. No fems.' or 'M. 19, Slim, good looking, WLTM SA older gent'

SA, or Straight Acting, was pretty much the key word in every sentence. Its continuing presence said a lot to me about issues about masculinity, about ideas of 'fitting in' about the gay scene as a whole. NOW I thumbed through a copy on my desk yesterday and the personals column has shrunk considerably (after all, we now have apps and a lot more online abilities), the advertisers usually in their 60s and 70s and, from the issue on my desk, looking for, or are, TV or CDs. THere is truly not a single requet for 'straight acting' or 'straight passing' on the whole page.

Things continue to change and evolve, in all cultures, including subcultures. And I continue to be fascinated in seeing these changes- in 10 years again will everyone be looking not for TVs but for Camp, when so many theorists tell us Camp is dying if not already dead? Or will everyone in 20 years time be looking for leather daddies, otters & bears? Will they have all the polari? Or will there be no gay magazines at all only fashion and housekeeping and sewing and hobbyist things that no longer look like a toyshop aisle where 'Men's Hobbies (cars, computers, weirdly in Morrisons, Private Eye) , are sharply separated from 'Women's Hobbies' (which are not called that of course, they're called 'Lifestyle' mags (Home & Garden, Celebrity gossip, fashion, beauty, weightloss (to be beautiful), decorating, cooking etc).

OH MY DEAR HEAVEN WHAT A WEEK.

This was the week of the student exams, which is always hectic and frantic and crazy and I've spent two days up at 5am and on my feet all day. I have also been house sitting which is always a bit...odd because one feels obliged to keep one's posessions in a specific limited space, surrounded by someone else's home. Additionally I am NOT WELL and prone to whinging in between coughing fits about how unwell I feel. Got up at 5.30 this morning and came home from work at 3.00 because I just couldn't hack it out for another couple of hours. Just came and fell into my own bed.

Anyway as I don't (and mostly shouldn't) talk about work on here too much instead I will admit that although I meant to go to bed really early last night I didn't because I was watching The Best Possible Taste: The Kenny Everett Story on BBC4 (it is on iplayer now, everyone, YOU MUST WATCH THIS IT IS GORGEOUS). Oh, it was just wonderful. It is a TV docu-drama (think Kenneth Williams, Fantabulosa with Michael Sheen) about the marvellous, madcap, super Kenny Everett who was just amazingly clever and quick and lovely. I don't know if it's just him or a combo of Kenny and the actor playing him but OH HE IS SO PRETTY with such lovely eyes!

And hey, if you don't know who he is YOU SHOULD and bonus: Freddie Mercury inside!

So yeah, I had to stay up to watch it, because KENNY EVERETT. <3

Tomorrow, we are going to the house to do work on it. I can't tell you how much, as much as I know the sooner we get a move on the sooner we can Move In, I just want to have a day of Staying In Bed Drinking Lots Of Fluids and Flu Medication.

So on Friday I toddled around town doing a few jobs in the morning and then went to visit still_lycoris and robert_frogg we had pizza and watched the DVD of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and then on Saturday we caught the train to Manchester and WENT TO SEE IT ON STAGE.

It was wonderful! The costumes were absolutely amazing, as were the effects and it was just lovely and beautiful and also rather hot. (Mmm some of those dancers!! WOW.)

So that was just fabulosa. I have now seen, in less than a week, two excellent theatrical shows involving men in corsets. :D :D :D! Win.

So...this is where I was yesterday (I don't know the guys in the picture by the way, I snapped a lot of pictures of pretty people or tried to at any rate). Yeah. So some friends and I went to Pride. Owing to me working I missed the parade which is sad- I think next year I really really want to see that, but apart from the fact that I was not nearly drunk enough to be able to have a dance (and am too tight to buy overpriced but 'cheap' lager- or any drink purely for the point of getting drunk, it's too dull) and such it was all good. It was lovely to see so many rainbows and happy people and everyone just in an upbeat and lovely mood. I also got to find out where the gay quarter is although we didn't really get into any clubs because the crowds were just mental but it was fun. I got a skill and two crossed swords glitter art on my arm in rainbow colours.

Despite not collecting Astonishing X-Men (apart from owning number 1) it was practically a given that I would be purchasing number 51. Aside from just general Northstar love ("I am GAY!"- trufax quote) my purchasing it was guarenteed for two major reasons, the first being the irrational collector desire to not miss out. I don't spend half my time watching the auctions for Incredible Hulk #181 ticking up to £500.00 without sighs of regret that I was not even alive in the 70s. Honest. Okay yes I do and damn it I was not missing out on this one! The second is of course my passionate love of all things gay. I listened to the first gay sex scene in The Archers with open mouthed adoration, despite not regularly caring about either I watched a week of Coronation Street just to see the first gay kiss (disappointing) and tuned in to The Archers at Uni just to hear the First Gay Wedding. It kind of had to be.

...time for the small, petty, disappointed ramble, because although the story is lovely...I was a bit deflated:

( SPOILER AND IMAGE HEAVY CUT )

I have just finished reading Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's True Love by Jonathan Fryer

( Review under cut )

I was working at the library today. I promised myself: "No, Mike, you will bring back the two books you have finished but you will not borrow any more non-course related books."

I picked up The Cybercultures Reader when I was on floor one, but that was okay, as I think I will need it for this next essay.

Then I went to floor three. And borrowed Empire of Ivory by Naomi Novik (the next Temeraire) and also Wolf Gift by Anne Rice had just come into shelving.

So I brought two books back and came home with three. Terrific. In addition to that abebooks sent me a money off voucher which I have used to order Baudrillard's Simulacrae (course related, so okay) and also Robbie Ross: Oscar Wilde's Devoted Friend and Rum, Sodomy and the Lash: Piracy, Sexuality and Masculinity. The latter two have arrived.

I have asked Mum to hide them on me for I fear when faced with books I have LONGED for quite some time over I would not be able to excercise my usual iron self-control.

Now I have an enormous pile of books to read, most of which I have forbidden myself from looking at until I plough through a pile of journal articles and other research for essay prep. Dammit.

I have bought myself a kindle! It is sweet and adorable and I know it makes me an absolute hypocrite but you can do all sorts of useful things on it for textbooks (like HIGHLIGHTING QUOTES without PERMENANT EFFECTS) and also it was an issue of cost effectiveness. In the past few weeks alone I have requested two more books from the library and ordered three 'old favourites' from amazon, abebooks and ebay- for some the kindle price beat any other hand down and so I first got the app for the computer and then went a bit mad about CARRYING IT ROUND WITH ME NOW PLEASE.

So yes. I have one. It is very cute. I have no idea what I'm doing but I expect I'll get the hang of it.

Struggling through my next lot of readings has recently had me feeling exceptionally dunce-like. I just don't understand the prose style and what they want me to do and how it relates to anything ever. So it was quite lovely to see that on my discussion piece about the last lot of readings (which I acutally enjoyed doing, and have now picked as my essay question) someone had finally replied. Only to find out it wasn't a student but a lovely helpful senior lecturer who has given me hints of other articles (including some of his own) to read. *squee*. There are not enough hours in the day at present for the sheer amount of stuff I'm reading. It may actually be improving my linguistic abilities (or at least reminding me to utilise them) which is also a plus!

In Other news:

I've been having a sore foot for a while and a friendly phsyio has now had a look (much to my prudish embarrasment) and it turns out the....tendonny bit over the bridge of my toes has collapsed making part of my foot flat. Hence the uneven gait and pains when walking. Yowch. So she is going to give me some excercises to do and in the meantime I am to walk barefoot when possible. This would be far easier if it wasn't Absolutely Perishing Cold. But there we go. Yay. I'm actually happy just because I now have a reason why. The big reason I didn't get on with my GP last time I plucked up all my courage and went is because he didn't seem that arsed about finding out why things hurt/were funny. It was all 'take painkillers if it hurts' which, yes, true, that will temporarily solve the issue but I could have fathomed that bit out myself. I always want to know WHY and HOW and it's frustrating when other people don't seem to give a shit about stuff like that.

I love my mother. I know, I know, complete old quean here but really. At some point today she randomly picked up that on the Voices from the Old Bailey programme on Radio 4 (a troll through the archives, social history etc) they were doing an episode that mentioned:

a cross-dressing man
Mollies clubs
a song called BUMOGRAPHY

and her firs thought, was that she HAD TO TELL ME TO LISTEN.


I did, on the iplayer, and is AWESOME:

Linkage- Voices from the Old Bailey Servies 2, Episode 2: Sexual Subcultures

About:Amanda Vickery uses court cases to explore the lives of gay men and cross-dressers in the 18th century. Lesbians did not appear in court as lesbianism was not against the law - but we find and record an 18th century lesbian love song, as well as the hilarious 'Bumography'.

The 3 court cases in the programme range from the tragic to the hilarious. First, the case of a milkman caught in a raid on a gay brothel - and sentenced to death. His father-in-law appears in court to plead for him - it turns out the milkman is a widower, with a daughter to raise. But to no avail: he hangs for the crime of sodomy.

The second case is blackmail, and reveals the vulnerability of all men at the time to accusations of sodomy. The third stars the hilarious 'Princess Seraphina', a cross-dresser with a bevy of female admirers who turn up in court. It gives a priceless insight into 18th century camp.

Three contributors discuss the cases: leading gay historian Rictor Norton, whose books and website have a cult following; Helen Berry, historian of sexuality, whose book on castrati is published later this year, and Professor Peter King, historian of crime. They open up a debate about how far there was a clearly-defined gay identity in the 18th century.

Recorded on location in Lincoln's Inn, where barristers have been beavering away for centuries. But outside their chambers, this was one of the naughtiest places in London - a notorious gay cruising ground, and site of the 'bog-house', the public toilets which were a place of assignation. The music used in this programme was arranged by David Owen Norris, from original 18th century ballads.

Produced by Elizabeth Burke A Loftus Audio production for BBC Radio 4.

My cup. It overfloweth. And is filled with queans, queers and buggery. :D