Stone Fox
Eddie Stone is an internationally recognized award winning porn star, director & screenwriter who now makes his home in Toronto. Find him on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, and look for his upcoming website: www.eddiestoneonline.com
Aug
13
Now that the Pride season is over for myself, I have taken a little time for reflection. Ahhh, the memories. Rainbow flags, drag queens, glitter, dance music, proud parents, sunscreen, sunburns and everything in between. There is one thing that I can’t seem to wrap my head around though. It’s something I’ve been pondering. A question without an answer. So I put it to you dear reader to help explain to me the reasonings why. Let me paint you a picture.
You start your summer Pride diet when there is still snow on the ground, anxious about losing those extra winter pounds before your shirt comes off.
Tanning begins before the ground thaws. You want to make sure to get a good solid base. A natural healthy bronze that takes months of preparation.
Your gym regime increases. You spend more time on the treadmill, lift heavier weights and drink more protein shakes.
In the weeks leading up to Pride, the Crest white strips go on to ensure that perfect pearly white smile.
You plan your hair cut and/or colouring process around the Pride weekend ensuring the perfect coiffed do for the event.
Waxing and hair removal is done with enough time for the redness and ingrowns to be taken care of.
The outfits are chosen. Partly for style, partly for practicality, but always with a lot of thought.
Finally, the big day arrives. You are there! You are feeling sexy! You have never looked better! All those months of hard work and planning have paid off!
Why, at the festival, would you then feel it’s a good idea to stand in line and order yourself a big-messy-gets-stuck-in-your-teeth boiled CORN ON THE COB???
I don’t understand.
Aug
11
There is something mythical about the West. I guess because it’s the last frontier. Basically that last bit of land you get before heading out over the Pacific Ocean. It’s also the last place in time. The last place that gets New Years. The end of the world. And so, that is where I found myself, at the end of the world, to celebrate Vancouver Pride 2010.
As a Vancouver virgin I arrived with some stereotypes in mind. I assumed that upon landing I would be handed a joint 
I thought everyone would be wearing plaid and sporing a backpack. But mostly I was under the impression that the landscape was breathtaking. I was wrong on all counts, but the last.
Vancouver must be one of the most picturesque places on Earth. That is, assuming you would enjoy visiting a clean efficient city nestled among majestic mountains, surrounded by water, dense rich foliage, plentiful flowers and trees so tall you wonder how old they must be!
Let’s get to the Pride festival itself. Friday night was the Davie Street party (Davie being the equivalent of Church Street in Toronto). For blocks the street was closed to traffic and stages were set up for the entertainment. My fiance Shaun (Proulx – GGT Publisher) and I took our time getting ready. Nothing worse then showing up and being the first ones at an event, especially in a new city where you don’t know anyone. But as we approached in the cab, even with the windows rolled up, we heard the thumping dance music well in progress and a diva woman wailing. Coloured lights bounced off the surrounding building and people were filing in and out of the event.
Walking up to the entrance I braced myself for long line ups, throngs of tweaked-out queers and their drunken hags. But we walked in quickly and without hassle. Still in shock from the ease of our entry and lack of lineup, we looked around. A small stage was set up with Kim Kuzma belting out her music (she was amazing!) to a small if not enthusiastic crowd. ’The crowd must be in the back somewhere!’ Without pushing, shoving, squeezing and/or hooking myself to the back of Shaun’s pants we easily made our way through the crowd and to the beer tent to buy tickets. Within 30 seconds we had bought the tickets, crossed the party and gotten our drinks!? At other Prides I’ve attended, it takes a good 15 minutes just to buy the tickets, never mind sipping on the beer! As we mingled and chatted with the crowd, including a friend he hadn’t seen in years, I couldn’t get over how friendly people were , come to think of it, no one seemed high at all! After the insanity of the crowds at last month’s Toronto Pride 2010 – heck, any big city Pride celebration – it was a nice change to attend an event that was not quite so overwhelming.
Sunday morning we headed to the Pride parade. After the Friday night party I had no idea what to expect. Arriving early to set up for Shaun’s gig with OUTtv, I scoped out the scene. The parade would run through the city and then along Beach Ave. You heard me right, Beach Ave. Beach. As in sand and water. And that is exactly what Beach Ave. runs alongside. In the distance we heard the growl of the dykes on bikes and knew the parade was underway. Float after float, I could not get over the creativity and passion put into them. The rainbow flag flew in every shop window, was held by countless onlookers, and frankly was a little more rainbow then I needed to see in one place. But the sheer joy of the crowd (many of whom got there very early setting up their folding chairs) sparked a special kind of energy. An energy of hope, an energy of purpose and an energy of community.
But my favourite part had to be the community festival itself. As the parade snaked along Beach Ave. it ended near a park set up with tents across the way from the beach and English Bay. Imagine one minute you’re watching the parade and the next you decide to lie on the grass in the park, or check out the vendors, or lie on the beach or strip down to your undies and head out into the water! It was ALL right there!
I got to the festival early and window shopped from tent to tent checking out their wares. The crowd was minimal and I was enjoying the sun which had decided to burn through the thin veil of clouds. Standing in front of the main stage I flashed back to all the dance events I’ve been to over the years, and a smile stretched across my face, knowing that the hours that followed would bring memories for the new ones ready to dance the day away.
Suddenly, in the distance, a mass of people heading in my direction! My daydreaming time was over. My enjoying what little room I had to move around was done. The parade, now officially over had signaled a mass movement of people from the street and into the park. I had to make my way to the safety of the media tent and to where Shaun was conducting interviews, including a chat with Candis Cayne (the first transsexual woman ever to appear on network T.V., in Dirty Sexy Money)
Exhausted by the day’s events we headed back to the hotel in a cab. As we passed city hall, I looked out my window and noticed the rainbow flag flying high and proud!
Vancouver, thank you for showing this (sometimes) jaded homosexual that Pride can still be something to be proud!
Jul
13
Toronto Pride 2010 is done, and over a week later I emerge from the sludge of the dance floor in one piece!
This year I attended for the first time, the raising of the flag at Toronto City Hall, and once again I count myself lucky to be living in a city where I can be myself!
Jul
02
Last Friday was the huge kick off party to PRIDE WEEK TORONTO 2010 at Woody’s on Church Street. Food, booze, friends, performances and skin! Miss Conceptions doing Lady Gaga and my fiance Shaun Proulx being interviewed by The National Post!
This year marks PRIDE TORONTO’S 30th year of celebrations, and I was there to catch it all!
Jun
17
Every year in the city of Toronto there is an event called ‘Idea City’. The best of the best, the cream of the crop, the who’s who, the leaders and all the people of interest gather to discuss.
How the hell did I end up attending? Hey! I have connections o.k.!
Plus, this year my good friend Buck Angel was one of the speakers! Maybe one year I’ll be a speaker.
May
28
When you stop asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ or ‘What do I get out ofit?’ or ‘How much do I get paid?’ and start focusing on the things that truly make you happy and feed your soul, good things can happen!
I was asked recently to help a friend out with a project of his. He is an artsy guy and the project was an artsy one. No pay. No anything, except the satisfying of an artistic need of mine to create something interesting and new. I said ‘Yes, I would be happy to help.”
The artistic endeavor was for me to have my photo taken. Can you imagine? Me? Having my photo taken? Oh no! Whatever will I do?!
The photo would then be sliced in with other images as a poem is read as narration.
Having participated in the project was enough for me, but guess what I was told this week!?!
The project, called ‘Men Together’ by Jared Mitchell has been selected by The Canadian Film Makers Distribution Centre as an entry for the 5th Zebra Poetry Film Festival taking place in Berlin Germany!! What!!!???
Advice: Do something today that feeds your soul!
May
27
I didn’t choose the title for the movie ‘Eddie Stone: Superstar’. Had I chosen the title it would’ve been something more like ‘Eddie Stone: Untouchable Red Hot Mega Ultra Shooting Star’… or something a little more catchy.
Wow. Wow. Wow. What great timing the universe has. Not only am I deep in talks and discussions about my new website extraordinaire AND filming my porn star reality show with OUTtv in the coming summer months, but Chi Chi LaRue in her infinite wisdom has deemed it time to release an Eddie Stone best of.
Perfect timing as all my project come together (did someone say book deal?)
Watching the trailer for the movie is like looking at an old photo album or school year book. Faces, asses and cocks all came flooding back from the past… ahhhhh.
Don’t feel left out. Join me and my ‘friends’. For a look at trailer click here.
May
25
Today I walked my wonderful and talented fiance Shaun Proulx (someone’s getting lucky tonight!), over to the Pride Toronto press conference held in front of their offices on Dundonald. In my mind I have pictured a press conference something like out of The Young & The Restless where there is 1 camera, 1 person with a microphone and maybe 1 extra to try to fill out the scene.
No so.
OMG. As we approached the Pride headquarters we saw police vehicules parked, police men and women patrolling the streets, news vans, cameras and a throng of protesters across the street from the Pride offices.
And to think, I was just going to drop Shaun off and go to the gym… haha, no way Jose! I was stickin’ around to watch the inevitable fireworks.
I’m not in the thick of the drama, and I am not going to pretend to know all the ins and outs of the situation, but I CAN report on what I saw with my own two eyes.
The ‘protesters’ that showed up were there with the single intention of heckling the press conference. Chanting things like “We won’t run, we won’t hide. Politics is what makes Pride!” and “Resign!” to Pride Toronto’s executive director, Tracey Sandilands and “Shame, shame!!” I guess they knew the news was not what they wanted to hear because they had the chants ready! (why Pride Toronto decided to hold a press conference outside in heckling distance of crowds of displeased people, I might never understand)
Here is my beef with the entire situation. How can anything be heard, discussed, understood and agreed upon if one side DOES NOT LISTEN TO THE OTHER SIDE. I felt like I was watching the government. Where people yell over each other, cut each other off and NO ONE is listening to ANYONE ELSE!
What’s the point?
I’m sure there was a lot of back and forth between the groups in the preceding weeks, but I have too much CLASS, yeah I said it, CLASS, to yell and heckle something I oppose. Let’s talk about this like adults and come to a conclusion, but that’s me.
All that being said, Shaun stayed composed among the yelling and hate spewing and I was very proud of him.
And I am proud that we are nit picking and perfecting our state of evolvement. Think for a second the difference of debating over extremely heated topics like the one mentioned above and it’s inclusion in Pride and the fact that many countries DO NOT EVEN CELEBRATE PRIDE, because they do not have the chance to.
We are lucky.
May
14
Glen Baxter may be better know as the host of CTV’s IN FASHION, and reporter for the Fashion Television Channel, but give the guy a camera and his true artistry shines.
I had the pleasure of attending a photo exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival, Pervasive Influence.
Walking into the Hugo Boss store on tony Bloor Street, I’m met with sideways glances from pinched-faced employees. Ignoring them, I follow the signs to the exhibit located up up and up on the third floor. Climbing the stairs reminds me to get back on the stair master at the gym, but the climb is worth it, because the photos are raw and real.
For this exhibit, Glen Baxter travelled to Azerbaijan, a former Republic of the USSR that is affected by war, conflict and border disputes. These are a population of people displaced from their homes, living in virtual exile and the photos reflect their struggles and their strengths.
Glen has captured the subjects in raw and real moments of their day to day lives. The faces staring back have a story on the lips, a story of the juxtaposition of hard living amongst a fairy tale landscape. The hard lines that crease the people’s faces betray the hope and passion in the eyes.
P.S. Passion’s what I felt leaving the exhibit, but passion isn’t what was to be found in the eyes of the Hugo Boss employees. What was with employees motioning to each other as I came and went from the exhibit. Really? Secret hand gestures?.
Perhaps they were giving the “all-clear” that I in fact was not shoplifting (thanks!), but truly attending the exhibit. All I could think was a famous line from AbFab: “You only work in a shop, you know. You can drop the attitude.”
* The Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival continues to support RIGHT TO PLAY, a leading international humanitarian and development organization to build essential skills in children using the power of sport to transform communities affected by war, poverty and disease. A wonderful cause indeed!
