Gold and pink

Pete and I went to Cambridge on the train today, looked around the shops and had a very nice long long lunch in All Bar One.  Lamb burgers and beer are an extremely pleasant mix on a Saturday afternoon.  The photo below shows a manly drink on the left (mine) and a girly pink cider on the right (Petes).  I make no further judgement on the beverages in question.

I recently had an eye test and found out that I need glasses for reading and computer use.  So today I dragged Pete around several opticians and tried on glasses.  It became apparent, quite quickly, that my face and glasses go together like roast chicken and custard.  It's going to be tough to find anything close to acceptable.  Watch this space for details.

During November, I will be blogging everyday based on a list of topics listed here.  I hope you enjoy the challenge.

Don't forget that it's almost time for the next "5 on the fifth".  As usual, everyone is welcome to take part. You can either take 5 random pictures of something that happens to you on the 5th of November (or the days leading up to it) or perhaps go for my suggested theme. This month, the theme is Recycled. 

You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.

Kitlers

Here's a really silly website that I came across a while back.  It's called Cats That Look Like Hitler.  Yes, I know it's childish, but it made me laugh!

My favourite is Snowball...

Colton Haynes

I recently read a news story about 21 year old actor and model Colton Haynes.  A few years he took part in this photo shoot which featured some pretty hot boy on boy action. Now I appreciate that young actors will do what they need to do to get noticed, but a straight guy isn't going to French kiss another model is he.  He's supposed to be dating some sexy females, but I cant help but think that he might be gay.  I know... I'm bad.

Here are a couple of pictures of this sexy guy and a couple of the images that got some areas of the press excited.  I think they are pretty exciting pictures myself!

The copyright Police have been on to me, so instead of the actual pictures, here is a link to some nice pictures of Colton and the gay kisses are here. It seems that Colton is very keen to remove the gay kiss images from the net, in the same way that Kevin McDaid (boyfriend of Westlife's Mark Feehily) had gay porn images removed.

Advance notice

It's almost time for the next "5 on the fifth".  As usual, everyone is welcome to take part. You can either take 5 random pictures of something that happens to you on the 5th of November (or the days leading up to it) or perhaps go for my suggested theme. This month, the theme is Recycled.

I hope that you will be inspired take part - tell your friends too!  Don't forget to add a comment on my blog on the 5th with your name, location and link where the pictures can be found. Remember to mention my blog on your own blog so that your visitors get to see the other contributions.

You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.

Ha, Ha, Shock, Wow #8

Following on from these previous postings, here are four more random items from the 'net for your pleasure and entertainment...

HA

HA

I went to a new zoo and all it had was a dog there... it was a Shitsu

SHOCK

A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

WOW

Saw this guy on Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night and he 
definitely caught my eye - it's dancer Jared Murillo.

Coming soon in November

I saw a 30 day blog challenge a while ago and have decided to go for it in November.  I have made changes to the challenge as the previous one wasn't specific enough and here is the amended list.  Feel free to steal and take part yourself if you wish:


Day 01 — Sell this blog to the reader
Day 02 — A favourite movie
Day 03 — Five websites you couldn't live without
Day 04 — A favourite book
Day 05 — Five On The Fifth
Day 06 — A YouTube video
Day 07 — A photo that makes you happy
Day 08 — A news story
Day 09 — Recommend a few blogs
Day 10 — Make a vlog
Day 11 — An old photo and a new photo of yourself
Day 12 — Recommended a place to visit
Day 13 — A movie star
Day 14 — A funny image
Day 15 — Architecture
Day 16 — Songs that are guilty pleasures
Day 17 — A piece of art
Day 18 — A favourite television programme
Day 19 — A favourite quote
Day 20 — A hobby
Day 21 — A recipe
Day 22 — A self portrait
Day 23 — A favorite song
Day 24 — A personal objective for the future
Day 25 — The day, in detail
Day 26 — A personal talent
Day 27 — A beautiful person
Day 28 — Write a Limerick
Day 29 — Get on your soapbox about something
Day 30 — Plans for the month ahead

The best and worst gay films... so far - Update #1

Further to this previous posting, here is an update on most of the gay themed films I have seen. This is my list, taken from my ratings on IMDB:

Presque rien 9
A brilliant film on so many levels with some great acting and it just happens that the lead characters are cute guys getting it on.

C.R.A.Z.Y. 9
This French Canadian film struck many chords with me as I identified with the lead character Zac - feeling like the odd one out in a family with older brothers.

Milk 9
So much has been said about this great film - it really makes you think.

Get Real 8
A feel good movie with some really funny lines. The lead actor, Ben Silverstone plays a great part.

Krámpack 8
One gay and one straight friend figure at who they are over one hot summer on the Spanish coast. "Krámpack" is their word for mutual masturbation.

La mala educación (Bad education) 8
From the Spanish film maker extraordinaire Almodovar - too complex to describe the plot! Stars Gael García Bernal.

Just a question of love 8
A tender gay love story. This one is unusual as the lead character is actually played by a gay actor (Cyrille Thouvenin).

À cause d'un garçon (You'll get over it) 7
Tough and touching coming out story.

Grande école 7
The cute Salim Kechiouche pursues a college student who is unsure of his sexuality.

A Single Man 7 
An interesting and arty film with the great Colin Firth and star-in-the-making Nicholas Hoult.

Juste un peu de réconfort (A Little comfort) 7
Teens in lurve.

Les roseaux sauvages (The wild reeds) 7
Coming out story set in 1960's rural France.

Dorian Blues 7
Witty coming out story with some funny lines.  Worth 7.5 really.

I Love You Phillip Morris 7 
A great story that may have made a better drama, but funny all the same.

Maurice 7
This would have been the first gay film most gay guys my age would have seen - and all would have fallen for Scudder.

Mysterious Skin 7
Drugs, violence and sex.

Edge of Seventeen 7
A bit laboured at times, but lead actor is cute and story OK.

Beautiful Thing 7
Oh come on, everyone knows this one!

Shelter 7
A believable gay story set among surfer dudes.

Defying Gravity 6
A nice story, but it's a shame the main actors are so awful!

Like A Brother 6
Cute lads in Paris - but a bit amateurish and too short.

My Beautiful Laundrette 6
Not sure whether to include this - but it's a film that appears on Film 4 sometimes.

Cowboys and Angels 6
Sweet Irish film - worth a view.

Head On 6
Heavy stuff with drugs and violence, but worth checking out just to see Alex Dimitriades with a chubby!

The Fluffer 6
A story set in the L.A. porn industry - silly but watchable.

Latter Days 6
L.A. gay guy who sleeps with anything falls for a surprisingly fit Mormon.

Brokeback Mountain 5
I think that I am meant to like this one, but I found it slow, dull and unbelievable.

Ha-Buah (The bubble) 5
Depressing.

Mr Right 5
Some poor acting and stereotypes everywhere - could have been so much better.

Les chansons d'amour 5
I don't like musicals very much, so this was always going to suffer it terms of rating. A cute clip here though.

The Living End 4
Just not very good.

Love Is the Devil 3
Possibly Daniel Craigs only really bad film.

Greek Pete 1
A simply awful film with benefit scrounging druggies and a gay rent boy. Avoid.

3 years

Pete and I moved into our house 3 years ago today.  We left behind a small house in London with chav benefit scrounging neighbours.  Slander you shout?!  It can only be slander if it's not true.

This evening we are enjoying a Papa Johns takeaway pizza and a bottle of champagne - as we did 3 years ago.

I miss London in many ways:  the social life, the walks by the Thames, culture, the photographic opportunities, public transport.  I don't miss the people, the noise, the old neighbours, public transport.

Perhaps in the next 3 years I will complete the tasks I had listed on paper and mentally.

Finally... when we were in France, I picked up a postcard advertising a new film called Kaboom.  I only noticed it because it features Thomas Dekker and I think he's pretty cute in a "he's got an interesting face and looks cool" type of way.  He seems to having been shaving since he was 13 too.  So here are a couple of pics...

Headlines

Here are a couple of headlines that I have copied in recent days that caught my eye:

The first comments on Fernando Torres' availability for the Merseyside derby at the weekend.  How true...

The second shows the IMDB rating for This Is Spinal Tap. Anyone that knows the film will understand why the rating is out of 11 - the only film on the site with such a rating...

And finally, if you want to get your own way, 6pm is the time to approach your man it appears...

Manual labour

Yesterday I spent the day doing some more work on my project to convert the back of the garage into a room.  I actually planed a door with an electric planer - those things are powerful and could do some serious damage!

This followed work on Saturday when I had to lay a wooden (sort of) floor in the downstairs toilet.  Pete had decided that HE was going to do it, but following some swearing, the job became mine.  Not sure how that happened.  It was a tough job, but it does look pretty good, despite my initial reservations.

I am now very tired and in need of a beer.  And there is still quite a lot to do, including actually hanging the door.

And finally, Pete's brother did some concreting for us so we decided to leave our marks for people to see for years to come...

Guest Blog #5 - Stuart talks about disposable music

It's been a while since the last guest blog, but Stuart has kindly contributed, highlighting something that has been on my mind - the way we consume music. Stuart was the topic of a blog entry on coming out a while back by the way.


Being a friend of Dorothy's, It's no big secret that I myself enjoy some commercial chart music.

Just a quick glace into my listening habits as published on my last.fm profile shows that my current favourite music artists include the likes of The Saturdays, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga; all of which have quite a popular presence in the UK charts at the moment. But for just how long?

In today's world anyone can be a pop star. Technologies like 'auto-tune' can make people like Paris Hilton and Katy Price sound like they have a voice. YouTube can be used to broadcast your own homemade music videos across the world instantly, and TV shows like The X-Factor and American Idol can pick up a member of the public who the music industry wouldn't even take a second look at and turn them into a overnight chart topper.

Because of this, the face of the music industry; the artists, are constantly changing, renewed for younger/fresher/more moldable artists. This is a great way for the music industry to make money, but is it really doing any good to the future of music as a whole? I say no.

Music has become almost disposable these days. A new song comes out, the Radio/TV overplay it to death, we set it as the ringtone on our phones, download it to our mp3 players then after a few weeks we get bored of it and replace it with the latest must have tune.

Whatever happened to mega stars? You know the people that stick around for years making music that is still listened in years to come. Sure we have people like Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Eminem and bands like Kings of Leon and Muse, all of which are the mega stars of music to the current generation, but in 10, 20 or 30 years time will people still be listening to their music, will they even still be known?

Even someone like Madonna, who has been in the business for decades and remains a popular artist has lost some of her magic. Try to name her last 3 releases... yep, all pretty forgettable right? Think back to the 80's and all the classics she had back then. I was still in nappies and being spoon fed when songs such as "like a virgin", "Into the Groove" and "Holiday" were released, yet those are the songs I associate with Madonna, not her current disposable tripe.

Amongst all the artists in my music collection who have come and gone over the years I also have music from some of the great artists from yesteryear such as Queen, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, The Beatles and Michael Jackson - music before my time, yet who would you consider to be the modern day equivalent of these great artists?

There just doesn't seem to be anyone in the charts anymore who has the staying power to be remembered and loves in years to come. Sure there is some fantastic talent in the music industry these days that you might consider exempt from this generalisation (most of which I might add is of British origin) such as Alex Turner (him off of Arctic Monkeys), Chris Martin (from Coldplay), Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame) and Noel Gallagher (formerly of oasis fame) some of whom have created some classic songs, but are they the real mega stars of our generation? I guess only time will tell.

Manic miners

I've not slept well for a couple of nights and yesterday morning I was awake with a headache around 4.30am.  After laying there for a while, I got up and turned on the TV news to find breaking news about the Chilean miners with one already free of captivity.  It has been a stunning technical feat to find them and then attempt a rescue.

I watched the 2nd man, Mario Sepulveda come to the surface and had a tear in my eye when he was reunited with his family.  When Jimmy Sanchez (the 5th miner) came to the surface, I had another small tear.  Despite being a father, at 19 he is just a kid really and had been going through some mental struggles and anxiety, especially during the first 17 days when the 33 miners faced a long a slow death until the exploritary drill found them and gave them a chance.

Some reports have focused on Chile's poor safety record and I hope that this episode will improve conditions for thousands of workers.

When I really consider the mental anguish they have gone through, I cant help but think that the problems we all have most days are pathetic in comparison.  I hope I will remember that the next time I complain about something trivial.

Alex

I cant help but think that Alex Pettyfer has grown up nicely.  Just thought I'd share that with you. Must be difficult being this good looking, with model agencies chasing you and flying around the world with the beautiful people.

National Coming Out Day

It's the 11th of October. It's also National Coming Out Day.

To all the gay guys who read this blog, is there someone you should have come out to? Perhaps today is the day.

I know I still need to 'do the deed' with some people (I am out to family and friends). Am I brave enough, even after all these years?

Autumn sunshine

Still in Bordeaux where it is warm and very pleasant indeed. Enjoying checking out the yummy French lads... proof attached!

The city has history coming out of it's pores and has been sympathetic in most places with the rejuvenation and improvement including the introduction of trams.  I was last here about 18 years ago and I don't recognise a thing apart from a statue!

Last night we had a fantastic meal that had various courses with plenty of alcohol, though I have had enough beef this week I think.  The food in general is great and there are more cheese sellers than policemen.

We have spent the day exploring the streets, parks, market and a crazy contemporary art museum.  Tonight we are going to the massive fair that's in the city centre and then back to a stunning square with bars and restaurant.

Five on the fifth #16

Welcome to 5 on the fifth, a monthly posting that benefits from audience participation. You take 5 photographs on the 5th of the month (or the days leading up to the 5th) - post a comment here with your name, location and link to the site containing your photos and I will update the blog entry with your information. Remember to mention my blog on your own blog, so that your visitors get to see the other contributions. You can take 5 random pictures or follow my suggested theme - this month it is: "Round".

You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.

My own pictures are below the links of those who kindly contributed:

Daniel

Howard, Delaware

Peter, Texas (welcome a newbie!)
New Leaf, Arizona

My Time, Dublin

Adam, Berlin

Ken, Manhattan (welcome yet another newbie!)
Matt
Pete, Arcachon
Andrew, Bristol 
Mr Urs, Zurich
Torchy, England
I am witness, Washington DC
Erik, San Diego
Pookie Pie, Texan in London (newbie #3)
.

1. Sunset over the bay at Arcachon.
2. Pentanque competition in the park.
3. Candle light through a beer.
4. Pete on top of Europe's largest sand dune.
5. Camera crew and model on the dune in howling wind and stinging sand.

A few grains of sand

Pete and I are presently in a coastal town in Western France in a town called Arcachon. We are spending a few days here before travelling to Bordeaux for 3 nights. Arcachon is a fascinating place. In the summer, it is filled with the wealthy people either in the expensive apartments or in the mega-expensive huge houses (of which there are many). At this time of year, many of the homes are shut up but you can still smell the money.

Arcachon is situated on a bay that opens into the Atlantic and it seems that the local Oysters are the choice for most diners. There are many many bars and restaurants here which keeps Pete happy.

Today has been a stormy and rainy day, so we've explored the shops and drank beer. That's fine by me. If the weather is good tomorrow, we are getting a boat across the bay and then rent bikes.

Yesterday was a lovely day and we decided to go the Europe's biggest sand dune about 10k down the coast (the Dune de Pyla). This monster is over 100 metres high - it really is a sand mountain that has to be seen to believe. As buses don't run on a Sunday (typically French) we decided to walk there. It was a fair trek and the dune was as impressive as I remember seeing it about 20 years ago. The wind whipping up the sand was painful! At the top of the dune, a camera crew was taking fashion pictures of a cold and brave model. I'll use her image tomorrow for 5 on the fifth.

The walk back through the forest on sand for mile after mile was tough work. Pete's pedometer showed that we had walked over 25 kilometres in total. We deserved the bottle of Bordeaux that we finished off.

5 on the fifth is likely to be disrupted as wireless here is very very poor.


The Dune...

5 more in a few days

It's almost time for the next "5 on the fifth".  As usual, everyone is welcome to take part. You can either take 5 random pictures of something that happens to you on the 5th of October (or the days leading up to it) or perhaps go for my suggested theme. This month, the theme is Round.

I hope that you will be inspired take part.  Don't forget to add a comment on my blog on the 5th with your name, location and link where the pictures can be found. Remember to mention my blog on your own blog so that your visitors get to see the other contributions.


You can join the 5 on the fifth Facebook page here.