Instead of simply bitterly lamenting the fact that there wasn't a publication that catered to the FTM (female-to-male) trans guy community, Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiastos did something about it. In September the first issue of their new venture, Original Plumbing, was published and it sold out almost immediately. The quarterly magazine addresses issues in the FTM community through smokin' hot photo shoots, articles, interviews, and personal narratives. The duo and their contributors are currently shooting the next issue, "the hair issue," due out at the end of the year.
We caught up with Mac and Kayiastos a few weeks ago when they were in NYC to host the release party for the "bedroom issue" at Brooklyn's Sugarland (from what we heard the party was a huge success and hopefully the first of many to come) to chat about what Original Plumbing has to offer trans guys as well as everyone else.
Out: What's something you wish you'd done in high school but you didn't? Neil Patrick Harris: Hmm. I wish I'd been able to play more sports. Because I was working, back and forth so much I couldn't really commit to much of anything. I would've played -- I wish I could say something cool like football, but I probably would have played tennis. I was more of a tennis player.
It's that time of the year again. Every November we reveal the honorees for our annual Out 100, a look at the 100 gay, lesbian and trans people who have made an impact on gay and mainstream culture over the past twelve months. Last week we gave you your first peak at the "School Days"–themed portfolio with the honoree "most likely to reinvent," Chaz Bono.
Today we bring you Neil Patrick Harris, "the Golden Boy." You wouldn't have caught NPH playing the bad boy in high school. The great gay hope of dude-bro comedy split his teen years between the set of Doogie Howser, M.D. and his Albuquerque residency as the drama school geek. "That was a good clique to be in," the 36-year-old says now, at the tail end of a year when he hosted telecasts of both the Tony and Emmy awards. "You were still liked." He pauses, quirking an eyebrow for his obligatory punchline: "Which in high school is kind of important."
We'll be rolling out more honorees over the coming days. Look for the December/January Out 100 issue, which features the full portfolio shot by photographer Jason Bell, to be in stores in mid-November.
Tonight at 1:51 AM, while the boys of the West Side are swinging to the pre-Halloween hum of electro beats and down in the village greased cowboys are pouring shots of sambuca to the lustful throngs of yuppies exploring their fruitful wild side, it will have been sixteen years since River Phoenix died outside of The Viper Room in Los Angeles.
Alas poor River, I didn't know you at all, but if crushes could span time and space and death and some poorly chosen methamphetamine, I feel we could have basked in the infinite stoned silence, understanding that truly, no one knew you at all.
What so many fail to recognize is that River was a legend long before he became best known a cautionary tale of the potential tragedies awaiting young Hollywood stars. A dark beginning for anyone, he was born to two traveling hippies lured into the cult colony of The Children of God and spent his early years as the golden son of the mystical and child-molesting zealot group. His parents eventually packed him up along with and his siblings and fled back to California and as River entered school he was considered an oddity. With no friends of his own he spent his free time playing guitar with his family on the street. While other children had maps of Central Africa memorized, River wasn't sure who the president was. Instead, he found a home in the world of acting. On his first hit, Stand By Me, director Rob Reiner recalled choosing River because he thought he identified so much with his character Chris Chambers, a lonely and lively symbol of youth whose life is also cut short by a terrible tragedy.
Sometimes there's nothing like a little soft-core porn to brighten up a rainy Wednesday afternoon. Even if it's not raining wherever you are, you can still enjoy our new slideshow of images from Craig Seymour's photo-travelogue, American Boys, which chronicles the
writer/photographer's adventures in gay strip clubs
across the country from 2006 to 2009. The book features adult film stars
including Brent Corrigan, Blake Riley, Cameron Marshall, and Austin
Wilde shot in clubs like XL (Providence, RI), Nob Hill (San Francisco,
CA), Splash (New York, NY), Mr. Black (New York, NY), and Spin
(Chicago, IL).
Page Six is reporting that Hair star Gavin Creel is dating Tony–award nominated actor Jonathan Groff. Creel actually took over the role of Claude from Groff in the revival of the hippie-laden musical currently playing to sold out audiences on Broadway. Groff, who received his Tony nom for his work in Spring Awakening, is gearing up to guest star on another gay fave: Glee.
Neither actor's reps returned calls to the Post but we're hoping that's because the couple is too busy making out in the back of a horse-drawn carriage or sharing a hot chocolate in some cozy West Village cafe or some other equally nauseating newly in love activity to confirm the rumor.
This Friday the newest Batman
animated series, The Brave and the Bold, premieres its newest episode, "Mayhem of the
Music Meister," a musical starring Neil Patrick Harris. The Music
Meister (a new villain created for this episode) is a enemy who creates chaos
using his voice (much like Ashlee Simpson), and when he hits a certain note he
hypnotizes others into doing his bidding. Like the cast of Rent, he is almost constantly singing, and in this
particular episode he hijacks a communication satellite and casts the world
under his musical spell. With us devoting a post to NPH as Peter Parker, and
his recent starring role as Dr. Horrible, it looks as if The Music Meister is
just another addition to Neil Patrick's geektastic resume, and hopefully it
will not the be the last time we witness the Music Meister's range.
Surprisingly "Mayhem of the Music Meister" is not the first time Batman has dipped his batarang into the world of Broadway. In
the late-nineties, after Disney's success with Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, Warner Bros began planning a musical version of the
Caped Crusader. Jim Steinman, famous for his Bat Out of Hell series with Meat Loaf and the Bonnie Tyler
ballad "Total Eclipse of the Heart," was tapped to write the music and
lyrics, while everyone from Stephen Daldry to Tim Burton was rumored to
direct. Though it never made it past the planning stages, Steinman had already
written and recorded some of the songs in demo form for the show, which he
later released on his website.
Judging from the demos, Dark Knight of the Soul, as it has been dubbed by its cult of fans, is
exactly what one would think a Jim Steinman-Batman musical would sound like -- Bat
Out of Hell, but instead of Meat Loaf, it's
Batman singing while throwing the punches. With Catwoman and Batman singing tender duets and Joker's song "Wonderful Toys" where he rhymes the
title with the line "How did Abercrombie & Fitch come up with
all those boys?" it seems that Dark Knight of the Soul would be far gayer than the upcoming Spider-Man
musical, Turn off the Dark.
Hopefully the Batman musical will hit the stage in some form one day. If only it could include the true musical majesty we've been waiting for, a love
duet between Batman and Robin.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold airs tonight at 7:30 ET on Cartoon Network.
"We didn't know it was going to be a big hit. We thought Tom [Cruise] was the biggest bore on the face of the Earth. He had spent some formative time with Sean Penn -- we were all very young at the time, Tom was 20, I was 23. Tom had picked up this knack of calling everyone by their character names, because that would probably make your performance better, and I don't agree with that. I think that acting is acting, and the rest of the time, you should be you, but he called us all by our character names. He was tense and made constant, constant unrelated homophobic comments, like, 'You want some ice cream, in case there are no gay people there?' I mean, his lingo was larded with the most … There was no basis for it. It was like, 'It's a nice day, I'm glad there are no gay people standing here.' Very, very strange.
Years and years later when people started to torment him with that, I used to think God, that's really fitting, because he tormented a lot of people as a 20-year-old. He made such a big deal about it. Same thing with Eddie Murphy -- I remember somebody calling and saying, "You'll never guess who was just caught with a transvestite!" [Laughs.] And I remember thinking that seemed fitting, because there are certain people in showbiz who make it an agenda, every third sentence has to have something knocking that life choice, and you think, What are you doing? … I just thought it was very funny that years later, that became his bugaboo. Which is a nice 1930s term I thought you'd enjoy."
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