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Image: Dustin Rabin

PODCAST :: Your favourite aural boys Shaun Proulx and Mark Wigmore have wrapped Season 1 of their LOL / NSFW podcast with clip show that looks back at the way they were. And yes, the infamous story of The Moffats and the Vaseline on the Penis Before Bed IS included. Listen here! Brought to you by Diva Wines.

Poll: Are you glad 2011 is over?

PODCAST :: Episode 25 sees the lads celebrating Mark’s birthday geek-style, and Shaun’s talking… cars? Best make it a double, bartender.

Video Promo:

ICON :: I had most of the past weekend to myself, and decided to re-watch a bunch of Oprah episodes from the Farewell Season. And by a bunch, I mean 12. Yes sir, I spent almost an entire six hour period watching Oprah. Alone. The lessons I’ve learned over and over again about self-worth, empowerment, positivity, love, respect, and money have all made me wonder why Oprah isn’t a Saint. How can someone with millions of devoted followers for over 25 years not have their own religion? Although I am a practicing Madonnaologist, I have always found similar correlations between Madonna and Oprah. They are the two, one-name wonders in my life that constantly remind me that I can get through anything if I truly believe I can (Cher and Mom are not too far behind, either).

I woke up today and wondered where I would get the energy to get through the day (there was a lot of drinking involved post-Oprah marathon). Then I went to Starbucks (that answers that), and put my big boy pants on. I’m sure both Oprah and Madonna have had times where they don’t want to get out of bed. But, what if one of those days was where Oprah was interviewing someone whose life would inspire and save others?  Or what if Madonna was too tired to go and record a song that changed the world? Life is too short to sleep. Go do something! You never know what could happen if you just put yourself out there. So, now I sit here at my desk at Shaun Proulx Media with autographed portraits of Madonna and Oprah watching over me, trying to change the world! I’m so glad I got out of bed today…

Philip Tetro is our resident Madonnaologist, bringing you the latest and greatest Madonna news. Stay tuned for a special piece he did when Madonna was in Toronto last week. You won’t want to miss it!

BUSTED :: When you find out that your fiance has something really big in common with Kim Kardashian, what do you do?

A few days ago, Shaun and I sat watching a preview for an upcoming episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians.  In the preview, the family is sitting in some impossibly gorgeous vacation location, chatting and painted up within an inch of their lives.

It comes out in that conversation that Kim had been married before.  Her new husband Kris Humphries is in shock.

“I was a teenager,” she says, shrugging it off as no big deal.

STRIPPING DOWN :: Eddie Stone gives the shirt off his back.

NO BIG DEAL??

How could information that important NEVER ONCE come up in conversation?  Do you and your husband never talk?

I turn to Shaun, my jaw on the ground, astonished that something like that had never come up between them.  In all the wedding planning, in all the leading up to the day, in all the discussions about wedding stuff, not once could the conversation have lead to “Oh, by the way I was married once,” or, “When I got married the first time,” or “Hey, you’ll be my second husband!”

Shaun is unruffled by Kim’s attitude and somehow the conversation shifts to an old boyfriend he had.

HERE COMES THE GROOM :: Eddie Stone checks out a wedding show.

Later that day, as Shaun and I stand in a frustratingly slow line at the grocery store, we come face to face with ‘The Star’ or ‘The Enquirer’ or some equally trashy magazine.  On the cover is KIm Kardashian in full wedding garb, which reminds me of our earlier conversation.  I bring it up again.

“So you don’t think it’s weird, that in all the time they’ve known each other, dated, proposed, and planned their wedding, that it NEVER came up that Kim was already married once?”

“No,” comes the answer from Shaun.

“It’s not that she owes him an explanation,” I continue. “I just think somewhere along the way it would have come up!”

“Not really” he says.  “But since your pushing the subject…”

“What?”

“Remember that old boyfriend I had mentioned earlier today?”

“Ya.”

“We had a commitment ceremony in San Francisco.”

DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES :: Eddie Stone on the illusion of the adult film industry.

I thought my brain was playing tricks on me.  Was Shaun actually telling my that when I had my reaction to the fact that Kim did not mention she had been married before – and then started talking about one of his exes – he pulled a Kim on me and didn’t mention that they had had a commitment ceremony (the gay equivalent of getting married in the US!)?

Us talking about Kim and her decision not to tell Kris she had been married before would have been the perfect time to say “Hey, you know what, I had a commitment ceremony once with an old flame.”

But the story doesn’t end there.  Oh no!  Shaun then tells adds, “Oh, and I was engaged once.”

I’m dreaming right?  Not because any of it changes anything.  Not because he owes me anything.  Not even because I should know any of this.  But for the simple fact that I can’t understand how such important parts of your life (marriage related) would never come up as we talk and plan our wedding.  ESPECIALLY when I see Kim doing the exact same thing on TV, then turn to him and express my shock.

Wouldn’t that have been a good time to bring it up, Kim?  I mean Shaun?

Read Shaun’s side of the story and then tell us:

So, Jabba the mayor and Mr. McGuinty are meeting today to discuss the city of Toronto‘s 774 million dollar budget shortfall. Does anyone else feel a disturbance in the force?

Twenty years ago, a little movie was released that became an iconic touchstone in films starring women. Thelma and Louise almost single-handedly created a new type of movie—the female buddy pic. For the uninitiated, the movie told the story of two women who set out to have a relaxing weekend of cottage life and fishing and ended up on the run from the law after an attempted rape resulted in a murder.

Thelma and Louise stirred its share of controversy in its day—and still does—for its portrayal of the women, most of the men (unsympathetic assholes who use and abuse women) and its iconic ending where the two protagonists make the ultimate sacrifice to stay free and liberated. The movie and its ending stirred debate in many camps and righty or wrongly became a lightning rod for feminist film and the linchpin of a sort of cinematic feminist manifesto.

A cock in a frock on a rock.

Another iconic buddy pic, road trip film was released almost twenty tears ago that made moviegoers sit up and take notice: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. This was a first-of-its-kind at the time. Two gay men and a transsexual traverse the badlands of Australia in a retrofitted bus on their way to a gig in the sun-baked centre of the continent. Along the way, they meet with a variety of people who react to the colourful trio in a variety of ways. They find abject homophobia and also acceptance and support in some surprising places.

Along the way, our three protagonists also discover much about themselves and their relationship to one another. While the inciting incidents in both films were quite different (an unseen character in Priscilla suffocated on fumes while bleaching his hair) the result was a wild ride. And while no one went off the cliff in Priscilla…there was a very moving and colourfully climactic scene on a cliff toward the end (“a cock in a frock on a rock”), there are ties that bind fans.

I’d love to see a great, witty, out-of-the-box gay buddy film.

These movies have more in common than not: both broke new ground in their respective genres; both broke new ground in gender roles; and both quite surprisingly DID NOT start a new trend in film. For all of the success of these films, they failed to ignite a new genre of buddy films. There really haven’t been any films like Thelma and Louise since the original and—To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar as a lone, weaker exception—there hasn’t been a great gay on-the-road buddy film.

As with women in film, gay characters seem to be expected to stay within certain confines when it comes to characterizations: sympathetic sidekick; tragic or abused; comic relief; or somehow disassociated from society. I’d love to see a great, witty, out-of-the-box gay buddy film that breaks barriers and upends the typical ways gay characters are (still!) portrayed in film.

It’s always fun to have a buddy or two to take along on your journey—whether you’re going over a cliff together or going over-the-top at a drag show—it just makes the experience so much more memorable. And, you have someone to recollect with years after…provided you don’t plunge into the abyss.

So, here’s to Thelma, Louise, Priscilla and “Les Girls” and the promise of big, gay buddy movies on hot summer days. Let’s hope we see your kind again soon. It’s time to hit the road…I’ll do the driving!

For a while now as regular readers know, I’ve been teasing about sharing something HUGE with those of you who love adore and worship music like me.

As I see it, this is the thus-far ultimate gateway to music. I’m addicted. It marries the concept of a limitless library of songs with the benefits of sharing what you love via social media, to birth a beautiful beast called Rdio.

Created by the founders of Skype (another favourite technology), Rdio is a website that makes music better by allowing you to listen to as many songs as you like.  I’ve lost count of the number of tunes I now access on my iPhone when I’m out for a run or in the car, and recently up at my stagette in the Kawarthas my bridesmaids and I were dancing our asses off as it streamed from my iPad.  Rdio works on Mac, PC, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile 7 and in-home devices like Sonos and Roku, too, and is also the only music service fully integrated into Twitter.

Best of all, it’s built around community (power to the people!), so friends follow friends, strangers follow strangers (hot), and together we check out each other’s musical tastes and add (or subtract) from our Rdio collections, making it easier than ever to share and discover new music.

A side group of Rdio “Influencers” also live on Rdio, a cross-section of the entertainment industry hand-picked by Rdio for their early adoption of the new, the cool, the hot.  Influencer’s playlists, collections and new music picks are prominently featured when you first see the site; I was jazzed when Rdio asked me to become their first Canadian influencer.

I checked it out, fell in lust, and have been on it like a fat kid on a smartie ever since.  I just created a Pride Playlist that we will be pumping throughout Toronto Pride 2011 at the Shaun Proulx Media booth this coming weekend.  But you can sample it now, by clicking here, and scrolling down to mid-page.  And make sure we’re friends on Facebook or Twitter and / or become a Shaun Proulx Media Insider now too – we’re giving those cool cats first dibs on a gift from us: FREE subscriptions.

That’s another thing I love about Rdio – you don’t pay for the music you add to your collection or playlists like you do on iTunes, instead you simply pay a small monthly fee (equivalent to a latte) to subscribe and start enjoying all the tunes you can handle.  But again, free subscriptions, on me, my Pride 2011 gift to Friends, Followers and SPM Insiders.

Honestly, I think Rdio’s the best thing to happen to music since Madonna.

- Shaun Proulx

This post originally published on HIMBO!

Reviewing my personal experiences and those I’ve witnessed of other individuals and groups on a whole through one-on-one contact or mass media exposure, I’m coming to a conclusion: queers are suffering an existential crisis. To wit:

We are always on the lookout for the next crisis of identity, expression, politics, sexuality, gender, and socio-sexual-gender-politics and how they do or do not conform to the written and unwritten rules of homosexual behaviour as deemed by those guarding the flame on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. That’s not only a mouthful, but also a hell of a responsibility!

Instead of fighting for our rights and freedoms, we are fighting each other.

Almost every year, without fail and usually timed around the culmination of the great queer ho-monic convergence known as Pride, we find ourselves thrust into a community-sundering crisis of epic proportions that tilts at our very identity and existence as queer (or however you choose to self-identify) people. Years ago it was typically threats and attacks from outside the community by those who wished to degrade, dehumanize and destroy us either through violence, active prejudice or legislation. For the most part we have beaten those swords into plowshares and come a cropper with human rights that—argue this if you will—are they envy of most queer people around the world. Yet, still we are not satisfied.

With hardly a lion at the door and most of the Trojan horses swapped for Trojan condoms, we have directed our existential angst inward. Yes, folks, instead of fighting for our rights and freedoms, we are fighting each other about how we label ourselves (oh, how I long for the days of Gucci versus Versace). We are now too gay, not gay enough, straight-identified, post-gay, post-mo, pre-fab, rebels, hausfraus, fatties, skinnies, piggies, vanilla, new-and-improved, fortified, fabulous, finished, or just questioning. I’m certainly scratching my head a lot, so I guess I fall in the questioning category (but I do vacillate depending on mood, company and situation).

This year we are all up in each other’s pooches about The New Gay. While this may sound like a branding exercise or a new product launch, it’s about how young queer people are identifying themselves and finding alternatives to their alternative lifestyle; Post-mo’s, as they are calling themselves. This has got a lot of Pre-mo’s in a tizzy and the queer cognoscenti firing off letters and emails and Tweets and Facebook posts at break-nail speed. The Qwerty is mightier than the sword. It has taken the issue from a local, Toronto level to a national discussion (props to the author!).

As usual, when someone comes out with a dissenting opinion, there is an almost choreographed firestorm of rebuttal and retribution. I like the rebuttal part as healthy dialogue and discourse is a good thing. I just think we can leave the snide comments and name-calling and assumption out. But I ask myself each time this happens: why are we all so upset? Why is someone’s perception or experience so jarring as to bring out the daggers? Why do we turn ourselves inside out, upside down and scream at the top of our lungs about our right to free speech and then attack someone in our community who uses their free speech to express an opinion that may not be popular? Who’s agenda are we adhering to and who’s free speech are we protecting?

Why are we afraid of the brave new world we’ve fought so hard to create for ourselves?

Certainly we are all allowed to share our opinions. Certainly we are not all expected to agree with these opinions. I have found myself in the crosshairs once or twice over things I have written and was rather shocked at the vitriol for stepping off point, not following script and not toeing the line. While being called names wasn’t fun, it opened dialogues and provided a forum for differing points of view.

We keep touting diversity in out community. We call for unity and celebration of ourselves as a whole community made up of individuals. Well, individuals have individual life experiences and POV and opinions. Are we going to attack every one who says something that challenges our preconceived notions or bumps us out of our comfort zone for a minute? Why the seeming existential crisis? Why are we afraid of the brave new world we’ve fought so hard to create for ourselves?