Ready to Bare : Queer Culture, News, Art, Community & Discussion
“Autumn/Winter 2011 lectrum by Ben Sherman collection, with Dazed & Confused Magazine, we rounded up six of the most dynamic Brits living in the Big Apple. Each Englishman chose his own clothes from the season’s collection and was shot in his New York neighborhood.”
Now is the time to rake in on Amy Winehouses’s death. I will be making memorabilia of Amy made from left over dinner scraps, paper clips, horse hair & phlegm (Just kidding). Ronnie Spector has released a spectacular version of the late Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black.’
I haven’t been this sad in a long time, about anyone in this business. I tried to go grocery shopping for my family, and I was walking like a ghost in the aisles. I could think about nobody but Amy.
(via news.pinkpaper.com)
The late fashion designer Alexander McQueen has bestowed £100,000 of his fortune to gay men’s charity Terrence Higgins Trust. The donation is one of four £100,000 gifts he donated in his will, this week. Other organisations who also received the sum are: Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, the London Buddhist Centre and the Blue Cross animal welfare charity in Oxfordshire. Out of his estimated £16 million fortune, he also left £50,000 for each of his dogs, gave £50,000 to both of his two housekeepers and bequeathed £250,000 to each of his siblings.
The iconic fashion designer, who suffered long-term anxiety and depression, was found dead at his London home on 11 February 2010. Westminter’s Coroner’s Court ruled today that he had taken sleeping pills, tranquilizers and cocaine before strangling himself.
Sir Nick Partridge, Chief Executive of Terrence Higgins Trust, said: “Alexander McQueen was a friend of THT. He supported us for over 12 years, working alongside the charity to raise awareness of HIV as well as vital funds. We’re touched that he chose to leave this generous legacy, which will be used to support those living with and affected by HIV in the UK.”
We are re-defing GAYDAR! Our DAR picks up way more than GAY. Feeling a bit Wacky today? These fashionistas from London might be right up your alley.
Check Year Zero London out on FACEBOOK
This is very different from that black plastic comb sticking out of the back of your Jordache jeans in junior high. We are deep into a game of apples and oranges here. You will be paying a pretty penny for quality products here but as an adult you can make these choices for your self( back off nagging stingy boyfriend). If you are having trouble paying your gas and electric bill this month I encourage you to ignore this purchase. Sensible?
Drakes of London delivers a grooming set made from Nigerian ox horn polished to a terrific finish. Choose from bristle clothes brushes, shoe brushes, and a dish made from solid horn. For those that are into horn and antler products and a look that is well old school.
Canada’s Naked & Famous denim house goes head to head with AMS’s own Tenue de Nimes for a special 24 pair run of 13oz green rope-dyed repro denim. They have a vintage army feel to them. “Specific attention has been paid to matching the shade of green perfectly. The mid-green color proved a particular challenge since the dye is very unstable, but the hard work has paid off, giving us a beautiful and truly inspired color.” Well done fellas. Available online
Pinups goes to London for a summer liaison with DIRTBOX in Dalston’s favourite dungeon Vogue Fabrics on July 9, 2011. Featuring Jos of Issue 14, gifts for early risers, and residents Gibson, Princess
Michael of Cunt and The Duchess of Pork.
DIRTBOX Presents: Pinups
Saturday, July 9, 2011
10:00pm–4:00am
Vogue Fabrics
66 Stoke Newington Road
London, N16 7XB
£5 cover
Making fun of ourselves is fun, especially when it’s clever.
This Is Funny, You Should Watch It of the Day: To promote Nico Muhly’sTwo Boys — “a new opera that lifts the lid on the dangers of living our lives online” — the English National Opera sent out an actor to perform familiar Facebook and Twitter actions IRL.
Unfriendilarity ensues.
Bonus: Why he went into John Snow holding a sign saying he was “interested in men.”
AIDS/LifeCycle Stories: Young Man Calls Mom At Rest Stop To Tell Her He’s HIV-Positive At Rest Stop 3 on the third day of the Ride, 
Kenny approached the embedded Press Corps, which IFD is a part of, and informed us that he was about to call his mom to tell her for the first time that he’s HIV-positive. He told me the decision came after having a lot of alone time to think about it while cycling and also the amazing community that’s been surrounding him the past few days. He invited us to film his end of the phone conversation which lead to an incredibly emotional moment on the Ride.
Wingnuts Say Indianapolis Police Will be ‘Howled at by Homosexuals’ in Force’s First Gay Pride Parade “The majority of Hoosiers and probably the majority of folks in Indianapolis if they actually went to the Gay Pride Parade and see the activities that goes on there would be shocked to see our taxpayer dollars going to have our men and women in uniform through the police and fire department march in that kind of a parade,” says Ryan McCann of The Indiana Family Institute.”
Catholic School Bans Rainbows Administrators at a Catholic high school in Canada told students they couldn’t use rainbows for an antihomophobia event last week,
but the students found a clever loophole. Sixteen-year-old Leanne Iskander established an unofficial gay-straight student group at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School in Toronto in March, according to Xtra. The school board told her the group could not use rainbows to publicize its information after the students brought in signs and posters with rainbows on them.
Summers Are Going To Get Hotter, Stanford Scientists Say The summer season has not even officially started yet in the U.S. and already people are cranking up the 
a/c, boxing away the sweaters, seeking out the best swimming hole, and plotting how to avoid sweat stains. It’s about to get a lot worse. A recent study conducted by Stanford University scientists has concluded that if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase, many regions in the world will probably experience an irreversible rise in summer temperatures within the next 20 to 60 years.
Sacha Baron Cohen As ‘The Dictator’: First EXCLUSIVE Look (PHOTO) And you thought Borat and Bruno were wild disguises. Debuting exclusively at The
Huffington Post, here is the first image of Sacha Baron Cohen in his Saddam Hussein-inspired costume for his new film, “The Dictator.” About a Hussein-like dictator who gets secretly replaced by a lookalike goat herder and now must find new meaning in a life in New York City, the film is inspired by “Zabibah and the King,” a book about a benevolent dictator that was revealed to be written by Hussein himself.
AWARD WINNING PHOTOGRAPHER AND AUTHOR OF THREE BOOKS ON THE LONDON STREET ART SCENE, ALEX MACNAUGHTON IS EMBARKING ON HIS LATEST PROJECT.
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LONDON TATTOOS SETS OUT TO DOCUMENT HOW TATTOOS CAN BE A REFLECTION OF LONDONERS’ UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS AND LIFESTYLES, THROUGH CONTEMPORARY PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY. THE RESULTS WILL BE PUBLISHED IN A BOOK LATER IN 2011.
Forthcoming from Prestel, London Tattoos is the latest project from award winning photographer Alex MacNaughton. His aim is to show how tattoos reflect the character and lifestyle of the wearer. He’s currently shooting subjects, so if you’d like to be involved please check out Londontattoosbook.com for full information
Bring your Suzie chap stick or watermelon lip gloss and breath freshener, ’cause it’s going to be a good old fashion kiss-in, with a modern twist of same sex kissers. Shame on you London, I thought you were better than that.
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Gay rights activists in London plan to hold a kiss-in for at least three hours on Friday to protest the Soho pub that ejected two men for kissing.
According to the London Evening Standard, the demonstration at the John Snow pub has the support of gay Tory MP Alan Duncan, who called the event a “witty and powerful way of objecting to prejudice.”
Jonathan Williams and James Bull, who were on their first date, said they were asked to leave the pub, owned by the Samuel Smith Old Brewery on Broadwick Street in the gay-friendly neighborhood, on Wednesday after the landlady called them “obscene” for kissing on the mouth. A man in the pub had complained about them.
Boy George is right on the money. This may be a case where, the younger gays won’t understand because they only know the “now”, but being slightly older (coughs), comparing the late 80’s and early 90’s to now, today people are homogenized. We don’t really have any Boy Georges, Cyndi Laupers,Graces Jones etc anymore, although Lady Gaga is laying down a good effort. Decades ago the youth were bursting with self expression, trying to stand out and be abnormal. Nowadays, it’s close to impossible to stick out. Did the essence of individuality peak in the late 80’s?
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In speaking about the brutal attack of a longtime, and flamboyant, gay friend, Boy George discussed the pressures on gay men to assimilate.
Speaking to The Guardian, George discussed how his friend Philip Sallon, recently attacked in London, was part of the outlandish New Romantic movement in the early 1980s.
“People aren’t so individual any more,” George told the newspaper. “There is this sense of why would you want to stand out and make a show of yourself?” He added: “You can find that sort of attitude in the gay community too. That if you are an exhibitionist you are somehow spoiling the big assimilation. Most gay men go out of their way to look normal and fit in, but Philip is not of that breed.”
George decried recent antigay violence in London, and said the presence of gay people on television doesn’t mean homophobia has gone away.Geao
Thats it! I am filling my back pack with fat sharpies , spray paint, some stencils and anything else that will mark up a good abandoned concrete wall. I will take pics and post on line and then ( drum roll please) , I’ll be mutha’ Fn’ famous in no time!
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Already a legend within the international graffiti community, London’s ‘King Robbo’ will soon lead his entire UK crew (known to the world as ‘Team Robbo’) into Signal Gallery for their first gallery show of the year. Team Robbo is an intentionally amorphous and anonymous graffiti crew, which has now grown into The Team Robbo Network. Its presence stretches across the world, overseas members working in collaboration with their UK counterparts. Team Robbo UK will be represented in this show by core crew members: ROBBO, CHOCI-ROC, DOZE, FUEL, PRIME and P.I.C. – some of whom have worked together as a crew for around 25 years!
The exhibition is set to open on April 8, 2011 and run through May 7, 2011.
Signal Gallery
32 Paul Street
Hoxton, London, EC2A 4LB
I would love to see Andy’s coy facial expressions if he were alive as this transaction goes down. He would probably run out and buy a shopping cart full of tin foil to celebrate and take a polaroid of the bill of sales. (which would eventually sell for another million dollars)
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The money appears to be back in the contemporary art market:
“The price rose at breakneck speed as five collectors vied for the classic image, ‘200 One Dollar Bills.’ It ended up selling for $43.7 million (including fees to Sotheby’s), more than three times its high estimate of $12 million. The buyer, whom Sotheby’s refused to identify, bid by telephone through Bruno Vinciguerra, the company’s chief operating officer. Sotheby’s would also not identify the seller, although people familiar with the collection said it was Pauline Karpidas, a London-based collector. Just a year after the art market was in the doldrums with the world’s financial markets, buyers with deep pockets were not shy about stepping up for tried-and-true artists. The sale topped Sotheby’s expectations, totaling $134.4 million, well above its $67.9 million high estimate.”
PJ, a special thanks to you for putting out a new album to get me through the year. There’s nothing like long train rides in the rain with PJ in your ear to help your thoughts and self reflection leap forward and out.
GREAT READ
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via sosogay.org
PJ Harvey in Athens. Photograph: ‘Adamantios’ (via Wikimedia Commons)
1992: PJ Harvey releases Dry, and it is oh, very angry and very raw.
1993: Radiohead release Pablo Honey, which is marketed, bizarrely, with Beavis and Butt-head in mind:
Radiohead – better than Butt-head! Oxford England’s rowdiest new band. Huh-huh-huh, music that doesn’t suck. Featuring the self-loathing anthem ‘Creep’.
Who could have imagined that nearly two decades later, both artists would be releasing their eighth studio albums, in completely different ways but both with an enormous amount of critical acclaim? With the hype that comes with a new album, it could be that PJ Harvey’s Let England Shakeand Radiohead’s The King of Limbs offers an introduction to the music of two of the UK’s most consistently surprising and interesting artists.
In the pioneering spirit that comes with a new band to listen to, this feature would ask – if it could talk to you – that you put down your iPad, turn your Kindle to kindling, shove all distractions aside and listen without prejudice, not just to these new remarkable albums but to the entire back catalogue of PJ and Radiohead. Of course, many out there would already be familiar with the music, but even so, let’s use this as an opportunity of discovery and re-discovery.
PJ Harvey, Madonna-like in her ability to change her style, is one of the most innovative performers of her generation. It’s hard to over-exaggerate the impact Polly has had on a music industry with few genuinely powerful female figures, especially powerful figures that remain relevant. Signed to a major record label for all her career, she has used her mental fragility as a key tool in her armour and sex, religion, death and love form the themes for many of her tracks.
Harvey uses her sexuality as a way to gain attention in the press and accompanies her music with striking visual identities; initially all legs and hairy armpits, she seems to change her dress sense in tandem with her moods. She’s currently rocking a selection of fetching gowns accessorised by equally fetching head dresses, extending her Victorian-themed look from ‘White Chalk’. The sombre look perfectly complements the sorrowful mood of Let England Shake, interested as it is in death and the futility of war. READ MORE
Accidental Bear 