Showing posts with label gay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gay. Show all posts
Monday, March 19, 2007
Movie Monday: Two Fathers!
Aren't little Dutch kids well adjusted?
The annual Kinderen voor Kinderen concert and album features songs written based on ideas submitted by the children who sing them.
And this boy is singing about his two dads. On mainstream TV. And other children are joining in.
Makes yah wanna move there doesn't it?
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Flirty Thursday: Donna does dating
If you've got March's DIVA then you've probably already spat your coffee all over your cat reading of Donna McPhail's first adventures in online dating.
Is it just me, or is it suddenly socially unacceptable, if single, not to have a profile on an internet dating site? Whether it's Pink Sofa or gaydarGirls, true love (or a bit of 'frottage' if you prefer) is only 250 words away. Apparently this is the optimum length for a profile - less says you're hiding something, more suggests you're looking for free therapy. The concept of hanging around in bars waiting to bump into someone who doesn't repel you is seeming like rather hard work ... you can't even screen out the Leos before you start talking.
Undeterred, I start choosing the option ‘other’, just to be awkward. Suddenly, I’m face to face with one of life’s most complex questions – ‘What are you looking for?’ (Well, unless you’re Decartes that’s where you need the multiple-choice option, surely?) I mumbled something vague like ‘frottage’ (which I thought was something disgusting, but which turns out to be a bit of dry-humping), and then sat back on my largely self-satisfied backside and waited for the messages to come flooding in.
Is it just me, or is it suddenly socially unacceptable, if single, not to have a profile on an internet dating site? Whether it's Pink Sofa or gaydarGirls, true love (or a bit of 'frottage' if you prefer) is only 250 words away. Apparently this is the optimum length for a profile - less says you're hiding something, more suggests you're looking for free therapy. The concept of hanging around in bars waiting to bump into someone who doesn't repel you is seeming like rather hard work ... you can't even screen out the Leos before you start talking.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Wwweird Wednesday: Mother's day gifts
Crikey, there's barely any time left til Mother's day, and what little there is is already earmarked for working, drinking and watching Hollyoaks with a hangover ...
Fear not. DIVAblog has scoured the web to bring you two suitably unsuitable gift options.
Option 1 - If you are officially 'cash poor, time rich' then win extra brownie points with this homemade bouquet of flowers brought to you by tamponcrafts.com.
Option 2 - If a marketing manager would class you as 'cash rich, time poor' then invest for your own future (you'll inherit it one day) with a detailed depiction of the male human form from Queer art gallery howcampisthat.com.
Failing those, there's still time for a forever-friends card and a bunch of wilting carnations from the BP Garage round the corner.
Fear not. DIVAblog has scoured the web to bring you two suitably unsuitable gift options.
Option 1 - If you are officially 'cash poor, time rich' then win extra brownie points with this homemade bouquet of flowers brought to you by tamponcrafts.com.
Option 2 - If a marketing manager would class you as 'cash rich, time poor' then invest for your own future (you'll inherit it one day) with a detailed depiction of the male human form from Queer art gallery howcampisthat.com.
Failing those, there's still time for a forever-friends card and a bunch of wilting carnations from the BP Garage round the corner.
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
News Tuesday! Save our gay bookshop!
One of DIVA's favourite news hounds, The Times' Tim Teeman sent us this story today.
Britain's only lesbian and gay bookshop, Gay's The Word, which has been an inspiration to a generation of writers, is under a threat from rising rents and falling sales
GTW is a small bookshop that inspired Sarah Waters to create her best-selling lesbian bodice rippers, which acted as a “lifeline” to the would-be novelist Patrick Gale, and the only place that Jake Arnott and Simon Callow rely on for research for their books.
But now the is fighting closure. Custom at the shop, which opened in 1979 in Bloomsbury, Central London, was badly affected by the 7/7 bombings — the bus bombing and one of the Tube explosions happened around nearby Russell Square.
The effects of book-buying online and the rise of the bookstore chains have also put the shop in peril, said manager Jim MacSweeney. Gay’s The Word needs to raise £20,000 within two months to stay in business and is looking for well-heeled donors or investors - and new customers.
“It’s a case of use us or lose us. We are on the verge of closing. It’s tough trading for all independents,” MacSweeney said. “People came to us when we were the only shop selling gay literature. But times have changed.”
Authers including Sarah Waters, the Man Booker-nominated author of The Night Watch, has said: “I could never have produced fiction of my own if Gay's the Word had not been there first, supplying me with other gay writers’ books. It was not just a bookshop, but the hub and affirmation of a whole community. As a young lesbian new to London I remember arranging to meet people there; drinking coffee there, finding accommodation through its noticeboard.”
The shop, which was founded by bookseller Ernest Hole, sells a range of gay-themed fiction and non-fiction from around the world, and is one of the most enduring symbols of gay life in London. But it has suffered from not being located in the gay centre of the capital, Soho.
In 1984, Customs officials raided the shop during the infamous Operation Tiger. Among the books seized were works by Gore Vidal, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood and Tennessee Williams. “Customs thought gay bookshop meant sex shop, dirty macs,” says MacSweeney. “Not what we were about.”
Charges relating to the importation of indecent and obscene material were dropped after a high-profile campaign by civil liberties groups and questions in the House of Commons.
Today, the only homophobia the shop suffers is “a brick through the window once a year and twice a week people spit on the windows,” MacSweeney said.
Store managers are considering whether to turn the bookshop into a charity or community interest company — part private company, part charity. Should it be saved, it may relocate to Soho. “At the moment, lots of gay men, especially younger ones, simply don’t know we’re here,” said MacSweeney.
Famous customers include Man Booker prize winner Alan Hollinghurst, presenter Sandi Toskvig and artists Gilbert and George.
Jeanette Winterson reckons that: "Bookshops have made real progress by including specifically lesbian and gay books on their shelves, both generally and in special sections. On-line stores allow for covert or overt gay browsing, and as far as I am concerned, a good book is a good book, and doesn’t need to target its readers by the sexuality. Gay's the Word was a brilliant shop but the very fact that it is thinking of closing may mean that its work is done."
Personally I like the vibe of the shop, the queerness of it. It's a little homo literary oasis in central london, providing shoppers who are weary of the endless row of clone retail outlets like snappy snaps, tesco, yawn, borders, more yawns. For me its much like going to a lefty bookshop or any kind of individual, one-of-a-kind themed store - it provides us with diversity which seems to be an ever dwindling commodity. What do you think?
Britain's only lesbian and gay bookshop, Gay's The Word, which has been an inspiration to a generation of writers, is under a threat from rising rents and falling sales
GTW is a small bookshop that inspired Sarah Waters to create her best-selling lesbian bodice rippers, which acted as a “lifeline” to the would-be novelist Patrick Gale, and the only place that Jake Arnott and Simon Callow rely on for research for their books.
But now the is fighting closure. Custom at the shop, which opened in 1979 in Bloomsbury, Central London, was badly affected by the 7/7 bombings — the bus bombing and one of the Tube explosions happened around nearby Russell Square.
The effects of book-buying online and the rise of the bookstore chains have also put the shop in peril, said manager Jim MacSweeney. Gay’s The Word needs to raise £20,000 within two months to stay in business and is looking for well-heeled donors or investors - and new customers.
“It’s a case of use us or lose us. We are on the verge of closing. It’s tough trading for all independents,” MacSweeney said. “People came to us when we were the only shop selling gay literature. But times have changed.”
Authers including Sarah Waters, the Man Booker-nominated author of The Night Watch, has said: “I could never have produced fiction of my own if Gay's the Word had not been there first, supplying me with other gay writers’ books. It was not just a bookshop, but the hub and affirmation of a whole community. As a young lesbian new to London I remember arranging to meet people there; drinking coffee there, finding accommodation through its noticeboard.”
The shop, which was founded by bookseller Ernest Hole, sells a range of gay-themed fiction and non-fiction from around the world, and is one of the most enduring symbols of gay life in London. But it has suffered from not being located in the gay centre of the capital, Soho.
In 1984, Customs officials raided the shop during the infamous Operation Tiger. Among the books seized were works by Gore Vidal, Allen Ginsberg, Christopher Isherwood and Tennessee Williams. “Customs thought gay bookshop meant sex shop, dirty macs,” says MacSweeney. “Not what we were about.”
Charges relating to the importation of indecent and obscene material were dropped after a high-profile campaign by civil liberties groups and questions in the House of Commons.
Today, the only homophobia the shop suffers is “a brick through the window once a year and twice a week people spit on the windows,” MacSweeney said.
Store managers are considering whether to turn the bookshop into a charity or community interest company — part private company, part charity. Should it be saved, it may relocate to Soho. “At the moment, lots of gay men, especially younger ones, simply don’t know we’re here,” said MacSweeney.
Famous customers include Man Booker prize winner Alan Hollinghurst, presenter Sandi Toskvig and artists Gilbert and George.
Jeanette Winterson reckons that: "Bookshops have made real progress by including specifically lesbian and gay books on their shelves, both generally and in special sections. On-line stores allow for covert or overt gay browsing, and as far as I am concerned, a good book is a good book, and doesn’t need to target its readers by the sexuality. Gay's the Word was a brilliant shop but the very fact that it is thinking of closing may mean that its work is done."
Personally I like the vibe of the shop, the queerness of it. It's a little homo literary oasis in central london, providing shoppers who are weary of the endless row of clone retail outlets like snappy snaps, tesco, yawn, borders, more yawns. For me its much like going to a lefty bookshop or any kind of individual, one-of-a-kind themed store - it provides us with diversity which seems to be an ever dwindling commodity. What do you think?
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