Just click and image above to see the movie online.

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence present Pink Saturday 2009, the night before Pride. It was a much larger event than we've ever done for Pink Saturday and the City gave us a lot of trouble at the beginning, which really screwed up preparations. It was frantic behind the scenes, but everyone in the community loved it!

We anticipated a larger crowd and as it turned out, it was nearly double the number of people we expected. The battle with the City came from the fact that we needed to barricade more streets for the overflowing crowds, and to pay for it, we needed to sell booze. That's where the cops freaked out. It was a night time event with alcohol. We had actually officially canceled the event when the cops finally agreed to our proposal, and since it was so late in happening, Supervisor Bevan Dufty stepped in with some additional volunteers and sponsorship money to save the event.

In anticipation, between the volunteers and paid security, there were nearly 1,000 people involved in the production. We also added two performance stages, a live broadcast with Energy 92.7 FM, food vendors, alcohol sales, a laser light show and a giant disco ball suspended from a crane!

I got caught up in running errands at the last minute during all the panic, and for some reason, the flash on my camera was not cooperating. I only got a handful of pictures this year, so enjoy the little slide show above.

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Instead of a raucous float with blaring dance music, the Sisters chose to make a statement for Pride 2009. With veils covering their faces, the nuns rode in silence with no waving to the crowds or cheering. It was a solemn funeral procession with grave stones and just the toll of the bell mourning the loss of human rights.

Pride and Joy is an annual gay theme camp at Burning Man, but they also have a reputation for putting on fabulous "Gay Glo" performances under black light. For the Pink Saturday after party, or "After Glo", the kids put together a little fairy tale about two princes in the land of disco.

The author of the book "Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson", Ian Halperin, re-connected with his sources to provide insight into the final days of Michael Jackson. In a revealing article from the UK Daily Mail, we're finally learning what most of us already knew despite a lifetime of denial. The full article is after the jump, but here are some excerpts and photos from his last rehearsal.

"It is clear to me that Michael was homosexual and that his taste was for young men, albeit not as young as Jordan Chandler or Gavin Arvizo.

In the course of my investigations, I spoke to two of his gay lovers, one a Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor. The waiter had remained friends, perhaps more, with the singer until his death last week. He had served Jackson at a restaurant, Jackson made his interest plain and the two slept together the following night. According to the waiter, Jackson fell in love.

The actor, who has been given solid but uninspiring film parts, saw Jackson in the middle of 2007. He told me they had spent nearly every night together during their affair – an easy claim to make, you might think. But this lover produced corroboration in the form of photographs of the two of them together, and a witness.

Other witnesses speak of strings of young men visiting his house at all hours, even in the period of his decline. Some stayed overnight.

When Jackson lived in Las Vegas, one of his closest aides told how he would sneak off to a ‘grungy, rat-infested’ motel – often dressed as a woman to disguise his identity – to meet a male construction worker he had fallen in love with.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AFTER THE JUMP

PG rated trailer from Raging Stallion's sci fi thriller, "The Visitor". The use of the Broadway Tunnel in San Francisco is reminiscent of George Lucas's early sci fi THX 1138 which was also shot there.

WATCH THE VISITOR AT NAKED SWORD

I received a copy of Raging Stallion's "High Tops" and I was thinking about writing a blog entry about sneaker fetish (whatever that is...) but I discovered something even more interesting about this movie. As I looked through the promotional stills, I noticed that one scene was actually shot in a pot farm! If you look closely in the background, yep, those are marijuana plants!

Oh, I get it! It's not "High Tops" it's "High Tops"!

I read the press release, and naturally there is no direct reference to marijuana officially, but it does mention "taking a smoke break" twice in the scenes breakdown.

But if you click here and go to the Raging Stallion website, you can view the trailer which not only shows the indoor marijuana grow house, but there is also a close-up of someone rolling a joint.

There is so much pot grown, sold and consumed here in San Francisco, I'm surprised that it hasn't played a more frequent role in gay porn movies.

Raging Stallion's "Tops Getting High"... I mean, "High Tops" stars JT Stryker, Alex Eden, Tristan Jaxx, Damien Crosse, Ethan Roberts, Conner Habib, Qpid Erose, Manuel DeBoxer, Damian Rios.

GET HIGH ON "HIGH TOPS"

Oprah is Dead

Be prepared for weeks of unending Michael Jackson coverage! We've already experienced over 10 years of child molestation jokes, now they're going to be re-hashed over and over ad nauseum and morphed into zombie child molestation jokes. Why do celebrity deaths overtake any other news items? North Korea has missiles pointed at Hawaii but we're focused on a pop singer who hasn't put out a record in ages. Watch the video above to get a sense of the mayhem that will ensue when, god forbid, Oprah dies (and wait for the Thriller reference 3/4 of the way through!)

Death always come in threes. First it was Ed McMahon, then Farrah Fawcett and now Michael Jackson is dead. Larry King was set to devote his show to Farrah, now she's being put aside to devote two shows to Michael Jackson.

Even before Michael's death was officially pronounced, Brian Ochsman, the Jackson family attorney, for the first time broke ranks and spilled the beans that "He was surrounded by enablers." He stressed that when the truth comes out, it will be a bigger mess than Anna Nicole Smith's tragic end.

I've always suspected that he's addicted to prescription drugs provided by enablers that are exploiting his paranoia and promising to keep the world away from him. He lived in a bubble like Howard Hughs and Elvis.

Michael Jackson's first molestation case occurred before OJ Simpson killed his wife. At that time, a reporter asked OJ what he thought of the Michael Jackson trial, and OJ said, "Where's there's smoke there's fire." Very telling.

Objective legal commenters on CNN are now coming out to refer to the indisputable evidence against him in the child molestation trials, one of which was settled for "eight figures", which no one in the media has stated as fact before.

The truth can now come out, and it's going to get messy.

I don't cover mainstream celebrity gossip as often as I like, but by a simple search on my blog, I was amazed how many times I have mentioned Michael Jackson on Lavender Lounge Blog! He's made an impact even on me.

Michael Jackson's Gay Pornographer Jacko's Porn Pal Investigated Paul Barresi Memoir Outs Hollywood Royalty Michael Jackson In Drag Michael Jackson On Suicide Watch Auction Items From Neverland Estate

I broke a personal record yesterday - attending three movie screenings in one day!

The first two movies were both on the same topic, male prostitution. After watching "Greek Pete", I wondered why this movie was given two screenings during the festival, and for that matter, why was it even in the festival. It's about a young male hustler in London who is neither successful nor the stereotypical hot mess. He's just boring and and somewhat boorish.

The representative from Frameline stressed the supposed "innovative" technique of creating a "hybrid" of narrative and documentary, which I chalk up as just lazy and indecisive. I think the back story is the film maker, Andrew Haigh, is merely naive to the world of adult entertainment and once he got involved, everything about it seemed fascinating - but only to him. The DVD Extras of virtually any good gay porn movie gives you a much better insight into young men who have sex for money, and with better lighting.

The film maker admitted that he "cheated" giving the subjects directions and topics to discuss in the scenes where they are supposed to be candid. Oooh, very Andy Warhol, but 40 years too late. If I want a fake reality show that's actually scripted, I'll watch "The Hills". He even went so far as to hire an actor (or a non-actor as the case may be) to play the role of a client to show Greek Pete on a date. It wasn't hard to see right through that, and the director even admitted it in the Q&A! I felt ripped off.

A few hours later I saw another documentary on the same topic of male prostitution, but this one was done right and came out a hundred times better. "The Good American" follows a truly interesting character named Tom Weise who helped found RentBoy.com. Why did the shitty little movie about a 20-something hooker sell out the big Castro Theater and the Victoria while the better movie about the 40 year old hooker with health problems was only screened at the smaller Victoria? Simple. Old queens buy tickets to movies that have pretty boys pictured in the program. Period. As a gay man scanning through a film festival program, which of the two images here catches your eye? I thought so.

Whether it's a narrative or a documentary, movies need conflict. "The Good American" enlightened us to numerous issues facing this generation of gay men as summed up by the film's very complex subject, Tom Weise. The film follows him all over New York, Las Vegas and Germany showing how he managed to run a very successful prostitution-related business that is barely legal, but was his only career option as an illegal German immigrant with HIV. The conflict goes even deeper as he pushes the envelope to produce XXX parties in prudish America, putting his immigration status in jeopardy with potential police reaction.

I've met Tom Weise and I attended the one of the Hustlaball events in Las Vegas portrayed in the film. Even at the time, we knew there was a buzz around town that the event could easily have been busted and the Wild Wild West reputation of Las Vegas does not include public nudity and sex. You can gamble and drink all you like, but can't show certain body parts in public!

The film opens as he begins the process of being deported back to Germany, severing ties with the company he founded, and marrying his American partner in Germany in hopes that by taking his husband's last name, he will be able to get a new passport to return to the States. The finale of the movie was to be his triumphant attendance at yesterday's screening, but in a letter from Tom Weise read at the beginning of the show, his visa was denied just two weeks ago.

Wow, talk about conflict and timeliness! This movie really shows courage and ambition by both the subject and the film maker.

GIGOLO - CALL BOYS - HORSE HUNG HUSTLERS

I feel like I got duped into seeing "The Butch Factor" at Frameline's GLBT Film Festival. I saw the title and unconsciously thought, "Well, I'm butch..." or maybe I thought, "Well, I'd like to be more butch...", or I probably thought, "Well, there might be some butch guys on the screen."

Whatever pretense got me there, I'm not sure I learned anything.

Christopher Hines film, "The Butch Factor" takes a look at segment of the gay population that feels out of place among a larger group of people that feels out of place. Only this time it's the guys who most resemble straight men that are feeling out of place. Huh? The film interviews guys from all over the country that all say, "I don't relate to most of gay culture. I'm only relate to other jocks, cops and bodybuilders. Poor, poor me!"

Wah! Wah! You're a misfit because you're too normal. My heart bleeds for you. Now shut up and suck my dick!

The movie ran out of steam quickly. Edited and paced like a 20/20 TV news magazine segment, there was a lot of repetition in the 88 minutes of this movie that really didn't have a strong point to make in the first place. There was a lot of eye candy showing hot jocks playing on gay sports team of every kind, but each interview was the basically the same. I like sports. Nobody understands me. They interviewed several shrinks and counselors that didn't have anything interesting to say, because guys who are well adjusted to society's norms in every other way shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting to the gay part of their life. Where's the conflict?

The only applause from the audience came during an interview with a fey young twink with "Sissy" tattooed on his arm. He is the exact opposite of butch and since there is nothing he can really do about it, he makes the most of it even though he gets hassled every time he walks out the door. What the film maker avoided covering is how his "butch" gay subjects are often the tormentors of the sissy boys.

The film also made the fatal error of trying to define the age old question, "What makes a man?" Oh please, Mary. Spare me the trite cliches and show more flesh! You took an intellectually vacant topic and went absolutely no where with it. If I want to learn about "the butch factor", I'll just look at porn! In fact, if you go to Gay Video Cafe and do a search for the word "butch" you get exactly 69 movies with butch in the description (how convenient!)

EH, YOU WANT BUTCH? I GOT YOUR BUTCH RIGHT HERE!

The film is not yet finished, but I was grateful to attend an afternoon screening of Crayton Robey's "Making The Boys", a documentary about the Mart Crowley play and movie "Boys In The Band". Not only is the movie a celebrity-laden biography of writer and show business insider Mart Crowley, but it's a well-made gay history lesson to put the play in perspective with the times. As the film maker said during the Q&A, "We needed to create a context for the storytellers of the future."

The play came out in 1967, the movie came out in 1970 when I was 15. My only friend who was old enough to drive would pick me to watch movies for free from the parking lot next to a drive-in. (Yes, kids, people watched movies in drive-in theaters!) One week during Coming Attractions they showed the trailer for "Boys In The Band". We couldn't believe that a movie with gay characters was even possible. I didn't come out as gay till 6 years later, but I had come out as a "freak" long before that. My interest in seeing this "shocking" movie was simply because it was shocking. It's the same reason the general public flocked to see it onstage and in the theater.

It's impossible for me to explain how closeted the entire culture was at the time. The film maker knew that too, and went so far as to interview young gay people that never heard of "Boys In The Band" or knew of its significance. He felt obligated to include a thumbnail of gay history in "Making The Boys", which was really well done and served two purposes. Not only did it explain the significance of the movie culturally, but it provided a context for the debate about the controversy surrounding whether or not it was a "bad representation" of gay life.

Going back to my first screening of the movie in 1970 or 1971, the trailer seemed to indicate it would be more of an outrageous comedy or sexploitation movie. At 15 with no experience of gay life whatsoever, I left the movie stunned. I was somewhat titillated, but didn't understand why. All I knew was that I couldn't talk about the movie with my friend in the car, and neither could he. Many people felt the same way, but many gay activists as well as show business types hated the movie and play because it portrayed gay people in a bad light. Well folks, good art often is often challenging, especially if it's ahead of it's time.

From Frameline's Program:

Who knew that the same week Judy Garland died and our sisters rioted at the Stonewall Bar in the Village, a few blocks away William Friedkin was shooting The Boys In the Band — the first openly gay mass-market film? That is one of many little nuggets in Crayton Robey’s fun-packed Making The Boys. Another is writer Mart Crowley’s comment, “What did I have to lose?” to explain how a fey Hollywood failure wrote the play in a week, won a five-day workshop way off-off Broadway that turned into the event absolutely Everybody Had to See, then turned down big Tinsel town money to insist the 1970 film be made with its original, very brave, cast of unknowns.

This making-of documentary, though, is marbled with swirls of canny (and catty) commentary by a cast of well-known characters. The heads doing the talking include Carson Kressley (Queer Eye), Dan Savage, Michael Musto, Tony Kushner (Angels in America) and a now uncloseted Edward Albee. It is also candy-sprinkled with period clips. Worth the price of admission alone is footage of a Malibu beach party showing Mart Crowley cavorting on the sand at Roddy MacDowell’s house with Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Judy Garland, Rock Hudson and a dozen more of Hollywood’s gay glitterati and female admirers.

Maybe, like Larry Kramer, you thought Boys in the Band spread bitchiness and gay loathing. Or agree with John Cameron Mitchell that it was a breakthrough film showing spunky Sisterhood. Anyway, here’s one fun making-of doc. — MARK FREEMAN

Last night I saw "Pornography" at the Frameline GLBT Film Festival. Now, don't get all bent out of shape, it was only softcore pornography... or was it? It was hard to tell just what was going on in that movie, but that's the beauty of it.

David Kittredge's "Pornography" begins with a tight close-up of someone writing the word "action" in a crossword puzzle, because as the director said, "It is a puzzle." The homoerotic psychological thriller keeps you guessing all the way through, and to once again quote the director, "It will haunt you for the next few days." Sure enough, when I came home to a dark house last night, I got a little creeped out until I found the light switch.

I felt obligated to see "Pornography" because of my unique qualifications as both a porn producer, porn reviewer, and my aspirations as a (ahem) legit film artist. The story is about a former gay porn star from the 90's named Mark Anton who, as many do, made a big hit in a short period of time and then disappeared. The movie is in three acts, with three different sets of characters and locales that all start to tie in together, and become more and more entangled as the movie goes on. Throughout the movie you never know if there is a criminal conspiracy involving torture and snuff films or some sort of supernatural forces at work. It could even be merely dreams and madness at the heart of it. I won't give any more away, but I guarantee you'll come out of the movie with nothing resolved.

The suspense and hints of supernatural forces are very reminiscent of David Lynch, but the director says it was not intentional. "In editing, we had three Post-Its on the monitor that said, 'Psycho", 'Rosemary's Baby', and 'The Exorcist'. Those three movies were our inspiration, although not so much with 'The Exorcist'."

Some may see it as the same tired old cautionary tale to "stay away from the gay porn business, it's evil", but it's much deeper than that. We get the sense that these people may not have been involved by their own choice. It may have been either their destiny to get involved or they were recruited for some sinister reason to which we never get closure.

On the surface, "Pornography" is an excellent popcorn thriller with plenty of male eye candy and high tech film technique. The issues of homosexuality and gay porn are treated matter-of-factly and the cast even includes two gay porn stars, Bret Wolfe and Brad Benton (see photo). There is some pretty explicit nudity and simulated sex scenes with some gorgeous men playing porn stars. During the Q&A, one of the cast was asked a very involved acting question, and his only response was, "All I know is I worked out at the gym 6 days a week for 2 months for this movie." Maybe that's why he was cast as a porn star.

Fun little ditty about gay pride with groovy 70's images.

A big hit at this year's Frameline LGBT Film Festival was last night's screening of "Little Joe", the biography of Joe D'allesandro, the legendary pinup boy of the 60's and 70's.

During the screening, there were a couple times the bf clutched his pearls and gasped at the beauty that was young Joe D'allesandro. Short haired, long haired, posed or natural, the camera just loved him, as well as an entire generation of gay men jerking off to his image. And best of all, Little Joe himself showed up at the screening! In fact, on the way out, he walked right past me within arm's length! I'm swooning!

Some little known facts I learned:

-Joe D'allesandro is much shorter than I thought.

-At over 60 years old, he has an excellent colorist. His hair does not look dyed at all, but obviously it is.

-He appeared in over 50 movies, mostly in Europe, and he had top billing in many of them. -He met Andy Warhol by a friend bringing him to a party that turned out to be a filming. At the time, Andy's film making method was to sit next to the camera and read the paper while a bunch of cute boys and girls would just talk about anything they wanted. Andy would just turn the camera on or off when he felt like it. Since everything was so loose, they just grabbed cute little Joe and put him in the movie.

-Over the years, Joe continually asked Paul Morrissey, (Andy's director), why he was always asked to be naked in movies with drag queens. (Duh! Paul Morrissey is gay! That's why!)

-I knew that Joe D'allesandro had done nude modeling for Athletic Model Guild at some point, but I didn't know it actually preceded working with Warhol. I also didn't know he posed for AMG when is was only 16! The film clip above is the movie "Flesh" which kind of explains the improv style of film making. In it, Jackie Curtis and Candy Darling are reading vintage Hollywood gossip magazines while Joe is getting a blowjob. I am also waiting for a friend to bring me a clip of Joe D'allesandro's only hardcore gay scene. Though he denies having made a hardcore gay movie, it does exist and and I will be bringing it to you asap.

Athletic Model Guild

This year I decided to actively see movies at the Frameline LGBT Film Festival, and in order to see the movies you want to see, you really have to be proactive to get the tickets you want. By ordering all at once online, I was able to get tickets for everything except one, "Forever's Gonna Start Tonight". Come to find out, someone who works at Frameline said that movie was the first one to sell out online. I showed up at the Roxie Theater an hour early in hopes there might be tickets at the door, and luckily I barely squeezed in.

"Forever's Gonna Start Tonight" is a small documentary about a 73 year old drag queen named Vicki Marlane that still performs every Friday and Saturday at Aunt Charlie's here in San Francisco. She had some amazing stories to tell after having lived as a woman almost all her life. She finally got a sex change at age 47.

Vicki Marlane started out in the carnival circuit, sometimes as a hoochie coochie girl, and in towns where it wasn't allowed, she was also a sideshow act. For instance, she took Elmers Glue mixed with green food coloring, smeared it on her arms, let it dry and viola! She was "The Alligator Girl" and people paid a quarter to see her!

One of the highlights of her life was when Ethyl Merman and the cast of "Gypsy" came to see her troupe of drag queens lipsynching to the Broadway cast album. The real actors gave them a standing ovation, and Ethyl herself got up and sang "There's No Business Like Show Business".

That was just some of the marvelous stories told by the living legend, Vicki Marlane. The audience, which was at least half women, gave it thunderous applause, and I was sitting just two seats behind the absolutely stunned Vicki Marlane. It was the first time she had seen the finished piece. It was touching to see someone who lived their entire life on the fringe of society finally get their due.

From Aunt Charlie's website: The Girl with the Liquid Spine Vicki got her start from a female impersonator, Hedy Jo Starr, who saw her stripping in a local gay bar in Minnesota. Hedy hired her to be a "Hoochie Coochie" dancer in the carnival. She also danced at Joe Spicolas' "Diamond Horseshoe" in Tampa, Florida. In the early 1960's she moved to Detroit and worked as a Female Impersonator. After Motown Vicki blew into the windy city, Chicago, until 1969 when "The Gilded Cage" moved her and the entire show to San Francisco. Vicki began working at "The Third House" which was next door to the "Frolic Room" where she met Pat Montclair. That was the start of her San Francisco run that is still running. Vicki, once a Hoochie Coochie dancer in a carnival, now holds the title "Grand Marshal 2003" of the Gay Day Parade, one of the biggest carnivals in San Francisco.

Frameline.org - Aunt Charlie's Lounge - She Male Pay Per View Porn Movies

Being the social butterfly I am, I meet a zillion people everywhere I go, but who can remember all those names? I often run into the same guy over and over, perhaps even seen him naked, and asked him his name TOO many times to ask again. All I can do is avoid the issue and pretend like <i>of COURSE I know who you are!</i> Whenever possible I enlist the bf to draw out the other guy's name. "This is my boyfriend, Mark." They shake and the other guy is obligated to introduce himself. It gets really sticky if the unknown guy knows both of us, then the conversation ends with "Nice to see you..." and fill in the blank with "hon", or "hot stuff", or "big guy", or "sweety".
Ugh. I just blew my cover. I'll just have to resort to what they do in the video.

It's rare to see a cute young twink with a beard, and rare to see a twink matched with a big muscle guy to pop his cherry. Not only does Malachi Marx get his ass pounded for the first time but he gets Leo Giamani to do it! See the rest of the scene at Randy Blue.

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Here's some new movies playing right now at Gay Video Cafe.

A few years ago at the GayVN Awards, I watched as Francois Sagat met Erik Rhodes for the first time. They were fooling around for another photographer, but as they looked into each others eyes they both realized a connection. And who wouldn't? They are two of the best looking guys in the world. A minute later, Erik Rhodes came up to me and told me he wanted to get fisted by Francois. He then asked me, "Who's Chris Ward?" I told him he's the owner of Raging Stallion. At the time, Francois Sagat was exclusive to Raging Stallion and he told Erik to talk to Chris about putting them in a movie together.

Fast forward to 2009 and the dream came true. Francois later became exclusive to Titan, and Erik is still with Falcon, so their exclusive contracts prevented them from working together - until now. I don't know the details of how it worked out, but they met in Europe and did the deed. Now you can see it for yourself. Sign up for FalconXXX.com and watch this history making event. And guess what? I was THERE when they met!

This Dream Pairing Of Falcon Exclusive Erik Rhodes & Francois Sagat Takes Erik To New & Extreme Limits. ...After greasing Erik’s ass and his own hand, Francois inserts an index finger inside Erik’s anus, then adds a second digit, and then a third! A fourth finger makes it in and with the thumb finally wedged in, his entire fist is tight inside Erik’s rectum, twisting and churning. Erik bucks up to free himself and Francois starts again. It’s easier this second time, and Francois shoves his fist in deeper, beyond the wrist and halfway up his forearm...