Junction Confunktion

Well, folks, I made it through yet another Sunset Junction Street Festival here in good ol' L.A. For those of you who don't know what Sunset Junction is, it's the annual street fair organized by Michael McKinley (one of the original organizers of the first March on Washington in 1979 for gay and lesbian rights). McKinley's grand plan when creating the Junction was to bridge the gap between gay and straight, black and white, Latino and Asian, cat and dog--and bring them all together for one great weekend of fun, funk, and frolic. I've attended the Junction for the past several years, and I always have a great time, and this year was certainly no exception. (You can read my overview of the Junction by clicking here if you'd like.)

From the drag queens sashaying down the street in their sequins and high heels and punk rock studs with their multiple tattoos and piercings to the chaps-wearing leather daddies walking alongside stroller-pushing mommies, the Sunset Junction Street Fest is one of the few places where you can see diversity really at work. Gay couples can kiss in the street and no one bats an eye. Goth-looking teens with safety pins through their nosese can sulk all they want and people let them be. It's like a haven for "freakish" behavior, except that the cool thing is that mostly everyone realizes that no one who attends the event is really a freak. We're all just a bunch of people who really want to get along.

I actually didn't attend the festival on Saturday, when cool bands like Rilo Kiley, The Walkmen and John Cale played (I was frankly too tired from running a bunch of errands all day long Saturday), but I did make it over to the Gauntlet II later that night, where the bar was hosting a Sunset Junctin after-party featuring The Gay Gays, the world's only all-male, all-gay Go Gos cover band featuring Pansy Division's Chris Freeman and former Best Revenge drummer (and stud of my wet dreams) Belito Peligro. But wait--get this--there was a very special suprise guest in the audience that night. Jane Wiedlin, one of the original Go Gos herself, had heard that the boys were going to be playing at the GII, so she showed up to show her support!

But that's not even the coolest part. Jane totally threw the guys for a loop when she jumped up onstage with them and accompanied them on several tracks, including "Vacation" and "Head Over Heels." The whole bar erupted into squeals of delight as Jane jammed away alongside Chris (and I drooled as Belito sweat through his boxer shorts while banging away on those drums). It was a pretty awesome night, and I have to say, it was really cool to see these guys who I admire so happy.

Now on Sunday, my friend Mike and I eventually did end up heading over to the Junction, which was in full swing by the time we got there. Mike soon ditched me so that he could head over to the Latino bar (he sure does love his "dark meat," as he likes to say), and I met up with an old friend Al, who I hung out with while we both ate some delicious Hawaiian barbeque with pineapple over rice. Yum. (There's nothing like street festival food, I have to say.)

Of course, one of the greatest things about a street fair in the summertime is the array of hot men just out and about on the streets being their hot selves for the likes of me to drool over. I mean, there are hot men EVERYWHERE. It's like a plague of Studlyism or something, and sometimes, I must admit, it can get a little out of hand. They stand in pockets of hotness, soaking up the sun while they compliment each other on their bodies and secretly plan their little orgies for later that night, and sometimes, just sometimes, I wish I could be part of that world, but I guess I'm happier in mine, where such things aren't so important to me. I guess that us average-looking dudes have it somewhat harder in some ways, but hey, at least I know that when someone takes an interest in me, it's usually because they like me for who I am on the inside, not what I look like on the outside.

Anyway, I eventually made my way up to the South Stage to check out Jody Watley, who I'd interviewed for IN Los Angeles magazine as part of my coverage of the event. (You can check out that interview, by the way, by clicking here.) As we waited, I met this pretty hot couple of guys who were standing next to me, and I got to talking to them. I couldn't tell if they were interested in anything more than just chat, but I did get a certain vibe from them that wasn't altogether unpleasant. Still, they eventually went off to get some more beer, and I stuck around to see Jody perform.

And perform she did. Ms. Watley is definitely "still a thrill," and she performed a very smooth, very entertaining set of songs that included her hits "Still a Thrill," "Some Kind of Lover," "Real Love," a funkified version of "Don't You Want Me" and, of course, "Lookin' for a New Love." As I watched her from the side of the stage (they wouldn't let me back so I could get my picture taken with her, the bastards!), I couldn't help but think that--if she could only find the right material and get the right handlers--Ms. Watley could become a fierce pop diva again, one to rival that of Ms. Diana Ross, 'cuz Jody was sure workin' the Diana vibe up there on stage, what with the sexy Afro and her sexy grooves and assured vocal delivery.

Anyway, after Jody was done, it took over an hour for Chaka Kahn to get her big butt out on stage, and she wouldn't even let photographers use long-lensed cameras to take pictures of her. Kahn still sounded good (she opened her set with a disappointingly abridged version of "I Feel for You"), but there was something missing from her performance, and I only stuck around for a couple of songs before I met back up with Mike and we headed on over to MJ's, where there was another after-party with--ta da!--The Gay Gays on the roster.

This time, though, the Gay Gays had an opening act, the rock metal band Speed Queen, which consists of my pals Clint Yeager (who is profiled in the Homocore book), Marcus Cain (formerly of IamLoved, also profiled in the book) and Saul Acuna (also of IamLoved). Clint was one of the first guys I was attracted to when I moved to L.A. four years ago, and he remains one of Silver Lake's sexiest dudes--especially when he's onstage tearing into one of his band's songs. Speed Queen's set last night was fantastic, and I can't wait to hear their full-length album when it finally comes out!

After that, it was on home to get into bed and prepare for another work week. I can't say that my Sunset Junction weekend was quite as festive as I had hoped it would be (I really did want to meet Chaka Kahn and Jody Watley and get my picture taken with them to share here on the blog), but I did get to enjoy a lot of great food, music and men, so hey, I guess it wasn't all bad, was it?

Anyway, hope you're enjoying the blog, and keep checkin' back. More to come soon!

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken

Anger Management: When Life Deals You Lemons...

So, last night was not a particularly good night for me. For reasons that are really too silly for me to be sharing in such a public forum, I was just down in the dumps, wallowing in a pool of self-pity that really messed with my head. I mean, I was simpy at that point where I wanted to throw my hands up in the air and just scream, Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh and then be done with it. You know, sorta like that picture of me above (which, I think, actually doubles as a great rock 'n' roll portrait shot, huh?).

And why, I ask my self today, did I let myself get so hard on myself last night? What, just because some guy didn't express interest in me? I tried to confide in a friend about some of my recent woes (still trying to wrap my head around what happened with that dude I was dating who dumped me for his ex), and he was like, "Ken, this is one of the greatest times of your life, and you can't let the little things and some idiot who couldn't see how special you are get you down. You've got your first book in stores, magazines are writing about you, and your whole career is just getting started. So shut the f#ck up and focus on your book and on doing things that make you happy, would you?"

I guess sometimes it does take some tough love like that to snap you out of a particularly moody reverie, and I'm pretty thankful to have a friend who is able to call me on my bullsh#t when I'm being such a party-pooper. And I guess sometimes life just does give you lemons, and so, indead of picking them up and pummeling the car and front door of the dude who broke my heart (oh, but you just know that I REALLY REALLY want to do that), I'm gonna squeeze the sh#t out of them A) to release all my pent-up frustrations and B) 'cuz I'm thirsty as f#ck, and I could really use a good glass of cold lemonade. (Do you know how frickin' HOT it's been in Los Angeles the past few days?)

But anyway, in honor of my friend's advice, I'm simply gonna try and focus most of my attention right now on positive things, like promoting the Homocore book and hanging out with the friends that do get me, and just let all the little stuff slip away. Because really, if you're just running around stressing out over things you can't control, you're just never gonna get to that point where you can say, "You know what, dude? Throwing lemons at your house might help me restrain myself next time I wanna put my hands around your neck and squeeze the life out of you and all, but I'd much rather use those lemons for something more worthy of my time." 'Cuz you know, as arrogant or bitter as that might sound, at the moment it's just a really important place for me to be.

Hmmmm. Now where to??? :)

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken

A New Way to Play With Old Dolls???

Just when you thought you'd seen everything, along comes something new. If you thought you were too old to play with all your old dolls, then guess again. I recently came across this totally cool web site where they take old G.I. Joe and Ken dolls and put them in sexually explicit positions. Hot! The site is called PoseableThumbs.com, and it's, like, one of the coolest things I've seen in ages. Why, you ask? Because, well, frankly, gay porn has gotten pretty frickin' boring, if you ask me. It's all posed posed posed for the cameras, the guys are far too muscle-pumped, and the sex is just way overchoreographed. On PoseableThumbs, the sex is definitely posed (an intentional jab at the inherent inauthenticity of the gay porn industry, perhaps?), but in this case, it's far too fun to be boring. And besides, the guys are HOT!

I mean, just look at these dudes. They're not all porn-star coiffed to the heavens, they don't need to spend too much time shaving or waxing their chests (in most cases, they ain't got any chest hair to wax, poor things), and well, they're surely not overly concerned with the size of their, er, packages, since, well, they just don't have any! (One wonders when the site might begin to incporporate the more than anatomically correct Billy dolls into the picture...) I wonder then, is this site making a statement about the ongoing emasculation and emotional detachment (and, indeed, the virtual plasticity) of the gay male community, or is it really just trying to point out how playful sex can be? Hmmmmm, maybe it's a bit of both???

Actually, I did an interview with the guy who created the site, Pete Handler (funny name, huh) for AVN Online, and during our little chat, Handler told me that his goal was to try a turn gay men on by using dolls and action figures and incporporating them into iconic scenarios that are very common in the gay community. You know, sex clubs, back alleys, locker rooms, play dungeons... all that hot 'n' nasty stuff we hedonist gay dudes seem to keep getting into all the time...

What I really like about this unique "outside-the-box" site is that it really does restore a certain playfulness back into sex. There's a very hot juxtaposition between the seriousness of the scenarios (in some cases, you can just hear the dominant daddies depicted in the photos barking, "Yeah, boy, get on your knees and service daddy's meat!") and the more kistch element of just having a bunch of dolls laid out in such serious sexual situations. According to Handler, it's just that mix of absurdity and eroticism that makes his site so much fun for him to put together. "I hope the uniqueness is the thing that makes it stand out from the rest," he tells me. "I didn't do this as a get-rich-quick scheme, but I did it to try and do something smart and hot and original."

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but I definitely think he's succeeded in his goal. I mean, to me, you gotta have a sense of humor about sex, and come on, sex is always a lot more fun when you're able to laugh at all the slip-ups and little moments that happen while you're rolling about in the throes of sexual passion. Come on, admit it, you've had some pretty hilarious things happen in the middle of sex sometimes, right? (When was the last time you had to say, "Um, buddy, that's totally the wrong hole!"). And by using the iconographic figures so prevalent in the childhoods of gay men (come on, boys, who among you didn't fantatsize about your G.I. Joe or Six Million Dollar Man doll?), Handler is doing more than just depicting the inherent silliness that often comes with such raw physical intimacy; he's also celebrating the icons of our sexual youth. And I like that.

By using dolls, though, Handler also makes a very interesting sociological statement about the gay community's frustratingly shallow obsession with physical perfection and mucles. Just as women have often been prone to the Barbie doll complex (does any woman have a waist that small, I ask?), gay men are now slaves to what I term the "Ken Doll Complex," in which our constant need for validation through physical attractiveness has forced us become a bunch of walking, talking, fresh-from-the-gym clones trying to out-stud each other with our perfect biceps and our perfect abs. Handler's use of plastic men literally reveals (and pokes fun at) the very plasticity of the "Ken Doll Complex."

The fact that these dolls are in most cases completely devoid of personality is also another wink-wink statement that I think speaks volumes--though, in some cases, it actually looks like these emotionally barren toys are mustering far more passion and intimacy toward each other than I've seen in the gay community in ages. And lastly, Handler's insistence on using dolls associated with the ideals of hyper-masculinity and heterosexuality sheds a much-needed light on the gay community's internalized homophobia and its desire to idolize so-called "straight-acting" men.

Though one may doubt that Handler intended to make such bold social commentary with the fancy-free pics when he set about putting this site togther (indeed, he tells me, he originally did it just so he could get a few hits off of his sex-site profile), he actually seems to be in on his own joke, which makes the site all the more cool in my view. "A lot of people just appreciate the site as humor, which is great," he says, "although I'm always a little disappointed when the bigger ideas are lost on them."

Personally, as much as I think Handler's come up with something miraculously clever and kitsch, I would like to see him take his idea even further and go totally serious with it. I think that, as gay men begin to become more and more desensitized to the increasingly lazy adult filmmaking going on in the adult entertainment industry (and, indeed, if all these new government-bred anti-porn laws keep popping up), sites like this one just might develop hot little cult followings--not to mention encourage gay guys to not take sex so seriously for a change. (And come on, boys, admit it: We could all afford to, er, "loosen up," as it were, when it comes to sex.)

Anyways, kiddies, that's it for this blog entry. I'll have more for you probably on Monday, after this weekend's Sunset Junction festivities, so stay tuned!!!

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken

My Night with Margaret Cho

One of the perks of living in Hollywood, as I've mentioned before, is celebrity sightings. For some people, such things aren't important, but for a boy who grew up with TV and movies as his only escape from an often unbearable childhood filled with lonely days, the razzle-dazzle of "Hollywood stars" and the promise of excitement that Hollywood held, seeing a celebrity out and about is, I have to say, a pretty darn cool thing.

Now, I'm not one of those crazy stalker fans who has to run up to every celebrity he sees. I like to hang back, let them go about their lives, and not bother them; I'm really just happy to know that they're just like me, and it's cool when they are brave enough to go out in public--so really, why should I interrupt their evening out? (Well, OK, if it was Madonna, you can bet your ass I'd at least say "Yo, girl! You da woman!")

But if there's anything cooler than just spotting a celebrity out and about in "the real world," it's a full-on Hollywood premiere, baby! And last night, I was in Hollywood heaven when I attended the world premiere of commedianne Margaret Cho's new concert film Assassin over at the Egyptian Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. The event was hosted by Outfest, the annual gay and lesbian film festival held every summer, and it was pretty cool.

Now, I had been lucky enough to review an advance copy of the movie for IN Los Angeles magazine (one of the many gay and lesbian publications I freelance for), so, of course, they put me on the list for the premiere. And lucky me got to stand along the red carpet and flash pics of the stars as they walked by.

Now, admittedly, the "stars" that showed up to Ms. Cho's premiere weren't what you would call A-listers. I mean, Tracy Scoggins of Babylon 5 and Dynasty II: The Colbys and Chad Allen from Our House and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman??? Arent't we kinda scrapin' the bottom of the barrel here? But, hey, for a celebrity hog like me, that doesn't really matter. (Besides, Chad is gay, and totally hot to boot. Check out his pic! Va-va-va-voom!)

Now Chad's got a hot new role as a gay private detective on Here TV's new "Murder, He Wrote" show Third Man Out, which I am actually looking forward to--if I can get Adelphia to carry the Here channel, that is. We shall see. But anyway, it was cool to see him out and about looking all dapper and sexy. A lot of these child stars don't grow up looking too good, you know (I mean, have you seen Danny Bonnaducci lately?). And we need more brave, out and proud actors like Chad making the world a safer place for the Tom Cruises of the world to come out. Woops. Did I just say that? (If you don't hear from me ever again, you'll know the Scientologists have gotten to me. Don't laugh; it can happen! Those people will do anything to keep their gay superstars in the closet!)

Now Tracy Scoggins was looking pretty good for her age, I must say. She was accompanied by the young studly actor Greg Lee, who some of you might remember from his appearances as 'Virgil' on Xena, but from the way photographers were snapping pics of him you would have though that the dude was the new Playgirl cover model. (These were predominantly gay photographers, after all.) I remember former model Ms. Scoggins quite well from her days as Monica on The Colbys (What can I say? I actually watched it, though admittedly it was more to drool over Maxwell Caulfield than it was to see Tracy), and well, she pretty much looked the same.

There were a few other celebs there as well: my good friend the openly gay comedian Jason Stuart (who has a number of film roles coming up, including one in which he appears alongside Faye Dunaway), gay comedian Alec Mapa (who I may be interviewing sometime soon for Frontiers), Reichen (that hot 'n' hunky gay stud from TV's The Amazing Race), Robbie Laughlin from Bravo's Queer Eye for the Straight Girl, and the one and only Chastity Bono. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who wanted to scream out Sandra Bernhard's famous line "Chastity, get iiiiin heeere!" Chastity was lookin' a little less than svelte, I have to say, but hey, the girl's a bull dyke icon, so what can you do? She was a little laid-back, I guess you could say, all hands-in-pockets and aloof, and she looked a little uncomfortable in the flash of the cameras, but she eventually did take those damned sunglasses off, though I missed that shot.

Now, Ms. Cho, on the other hand... Well, she was just looking hot. And bitch was workin' the photographers like she'd been born to do it, posing up a storm and carrying on like she was Norma Desmond. As I mentioned in my last blog, I really wanted to get my pic taken with Margaret, simply because she is such a fabulous gay icon and because it's always good to be close to greatness in case it rubs off on you (I woke up this morning feeling strangely invigorated, I must say!), and I stood patiently but anxiously off to the side as she posed for pics and talked to interviewers until she made her way over to me, and I got my friend Photo Larry to snap a shot of the two of us, which I am proudly displaying here for you to see.


So anyway, then we all got to go inside and watch the movie, which I had already seen having reviewed it. My review had just come out that day, and while I still had some of the same problems with it (I think, like Bill Maher, Margaret has gotten a bit complacent "preaching to the choir," so to speak, writing material mostly for gay audiences who will all too readily agree with and hang on her every word), it was great to see it on a big screen with a packed house of people. It seemed so much funnier when you're enjoying it with a crowd. I laughed my ass off. Unfortunately, because I had waited so long outside by the red carpet to get my pic, the big theater was full, so they shoved a bunch of us press people into a smaller side theater to watch the movie. But Margaret was cool enough to come into the theater and tell us, "You people are just so fabulous that we put you in the 'special' theater."

After the movie was over, there was a rather fun Q&A with Margaret in which she did her famous impression of her mother, and then a festive party out in front of the Egyptian. There were all kinds of hot gay guys out there, one of whom was most definitely my pal Peter Hume, one of the writers of the upcoming WB TV show South Beach. Peter is quite the hottie, I must say. And he's Canadian, which I just think is sexy as hell. You know, Canada--the land of ice hockey, legalized marijuana, health care for all citizens and gay marriage! Not to mention Alanis Morissette! But the sexiest thing about Peter, besides the fact that he's from Canada and is a writer (I just love a creative man), is that he's just a nice guy with a great sense of humor. Like someone you could spend hours talking to and laughing with. (OK, so obviously I've got a little crush on the dude.)

After the premiere, my friend Mike and I went to eat at Hamburger Hamlet and called it a night. And oh, what a night! I swear, there's just nothing like a good Hollywood premiere to get you energized! Here's looking forward to more of them!

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken

A Post Just for the Hell of It

OK, so there was this great song in the movie The Cannonball Run that went "Just For the Hell of It," and you know, I always kinda liked that song. Not to mention that movie. Kinda fun in that throwback nostalgic way toward the early '80s, when Farrah Fawcett's tits jiggling around was fun for everyone--gays and straights alike! (I still have a Farrah poster hanging in my office at AVN Online.)

Anyway, one of the things that I love most about living in L.A. are the palm trees. See, we didn't have these back in Pennsylvania, and the only time I got to see them was when my family would go on vacaton to Florida, and I always thought they were the coolest things ever. So, of course, when I got to L.A., I was happy to be in the company of palm trees again. I've recently started taking a series of photographs of them as well, which I may one day publish in a book. Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say today: that palm trees are cool! :)

Well, OK, palm trees aren't the only things that are cool. So are cowboys! I missed the L.A. Gay Rodeo this year, but I'll probably go for sure next year. Ain't nothin' like a good ol' boy to get those juices flowing--like this here new country-western singer Keith Anderson. Slurrrpp! I mean, check him out!
This stud could stick his spur in me anytime! And his music ain't too bad either. Something about him just makes me want to walk up to him and say, "Howdy pard'ner."

OK, looks like I'm getting a little carried away today, so I best be running along now. Tonight I'm going to the world premiere of Margaret Cho's new concert film Assassin, and she's going to be there, so hopefully tomorrow I'll have a picture to post of me with her!

XOXO,
Hollywood Ken

Celebrity Sightings, Porn Stars and My La-La Life!

Well, OK, so I'm officially hooked on this whole blog thing, I must say. Quite fun. As most of my friends know, I love to talk about myself and what's going on in my life (though not, as some of them might believe, at the expense of caring about their lives), but anyways, hey, I'm not making any apologies. I am who I am, right? We Capricorns are kinda stubborn and self-involved that way.

So anyway, I feel like there's a lot of stuff I need to catch my "followers" up on. As I said, my book, Homocore, is finally out (avaialable at all major booksellers), and I've started work on my next one, The SeXXX-Files: The History of Gay Porn and Its Influence on Gay Male Sexuality, which I've been busy researching for the past few weeks via the Web and a few books.

As far as my entertainment journalism has been going, though, I've been keeping busy in that sense, too. I recently got to interview Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls), Bob Mould (ex-Husker Du and Sugar), Jody Watley, and just last week, Rufus Wainwright, who I really enjoyed talking with over the phone. He was funny. I got to go see his show at The Wiltern Theatre the other night, and he played with Ben Lee and Ben Folds, who I enjoyed as well. Later, a lot of us ended up over at one of my fave Silver Lake bars, MJ's, for an after-concert party, where I took several pics of Rufus, who was pretty cool. See, I even got one of him with me!

My friends and family back home often ask me about celebrity sightnigs, and indeed, they do happen quite often here in sunny ol' L.A. The other night, we saw Dennis Hopper out and about at the ArcLight Cinemas, my favorite place to go see movies in all of Los Angeles. I've seen David Spade, Jason Priestley, Zach Braff (who stood in line behind me for a flight up to San Francisco), Henry Simmons, and a bunch of others. My all-time favorite celebrity run-in was the time that Fiona Apple came into the 24-hour adult video store I was working at to buy vibrators at 2am in the morning, and I got to demonstrate to her how they worked. Of course, I never let on until the very end of the sale that I knew who she was, when I leaned in and said, "Now I better not hear about this in one of your songs." The girl busted up, her face turnng red and tears streaming down her face. She was laughing so hard. That was quite a fun moment. I'm so happy that her long-delayed record Extraordinary Machine is finally getting a release on Oct. 4. I've been listening to my Web-downloaded bootleg forever!

Of course, one of my favorite (not to mention hottest) "celebrity sightings" came this past weekend at the Gay Erotic Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center, where I got to cozy up to one of my all-time fave gay porn stars, the hot 'n' studly Mr. Parker Williams. If there was ever a man hotter and more naturally masculine than this (the Brawny towel guy and the Marlboro Man excepted, of course), I would like to know who it is. As you can see from this pic, I was pretty much one helluva happy camper that day.

Anyway, this morning I got a package in the mail--a contributor's copy of a book I submitted a story to (under my pen name "Colt Spencer") well over a year ago. The book is called The Best of Both Worlds, and it's a collection of erotic fiction that deals with bisexuality. My submission, "Married, but Not Dead," is one of the stories they single out in the book's description on the jacket, which was kinda cool for me. It's still neat to see my work show up in things like this, no matter how many times it happens.

I'm actually "on call" all this week for jury duty. I've put it off the past three times, so I think if I try to do it again, they're gonna put my ass in jail or something, so I guess I should go if they call me. Just don't wanna!

Oh well, I guess there's nothing really left for me to say this time around. Right now I'm just enjoying "sharing myself" through this blog thingy, and keeping all my friends informed.

XOXO,

Hollywood Ken

Welcome to My La-La Life!!!

Well, folks, here it is--my very first blog entry! Everyone else seems to be getting in on this thing these days, but for some reason, I seem to have fallen behind. I wanted to get a blog up and running on my professional site, HollywoodKen.com (which is actually not functional right now, but will be again soon), but until I purchase my own domain and all that good stuff, this will have to do for now. It's a cool way for me to keep you up to date on my latest news tidbits and stuff like that, especially now that my first book, Homocore: The Loud and Raucous Rise of Queer Rock(Alyson Books), is officially in stores (though the release date is not actually until Aug. 30).

Anyway, here's some rather cool news: I had my first book signing over at A Different Light in West Hollywood the other weekend, and it went pretty well. A lot of people who are profiled in the book came out to get their copies signed, as did a few of my good friends, and there was a rather cute couple of guys there who came out as well having just read about the signing in the paper or something. So that was pretty neat. I'm posting a pic of me at the signing here, so you can see how happy I looked that day.

There are some other cool things coming up, such as a book release party in September over at the Gauntlet II, one of L.A.'s premiere leather bars, and a few other articles and interviews as well. I will try to post them all as I find out about them myself.

In the meantime, I've started work on my next book, tentatively titled The SeXXX-Files: The History of Gay Porn and Its Influence on Gay Male Sexuality, which should keep me quite busy for some time with research and interviews and all that good stuff. I'm very excited about it, as it's given me somewhere to focus my energy in the wake of the brush-off I got from the hot guy I was dating who decided to go back to his ex. Whatever.

Masha the kitty is doing just fine. For those not yet acquainted with my wonderful furry little soul mate, here she is. She's been with me for the past eight years of my life, and she is, quite frankly, the greatest friend I could ask for. Isn't she just so damned cute?

So yeah, Masha is doing fine, and well, slightly broken heart aside, I'm not doing too shabby myself. I got to meet Rufus Wainwright the other night, so check back for my next blog entry, when I'll be posting a pic or two from that fun night!

Anyway, that's all for my very first blog entry. Just wanted to give it a shot and see how it turns out. Hope you keep checkin' back. Take care, and talk soon.

XOXO,
Ken