Queer. As in, FUCK YOU!

Heavy HeART

RIP Peter 'Sleazy' Christopherson.

Affectionately known as Sleazy, Peter died peacefully in his sleep on the
24th of November at his home in Bangkok, Thailand. The music and art world has lost a great talent whose unique approach ignored the conventions of the day and often challenged the status quo.

Sleazy’s playful and inspiring creativity saw him pushing boundaries as a musician, video director and designer throughout his life. He had recently returned to Thailand from Europe, where he had played a short but spectacular series of live shows as a member of Throbbing Gristle and in the newly formed trio X-TG with Cosey Fanni Tutti and Chris Carter. Sleazy's visual art career included work as a member of the influential British design agency Hipgnosis, creating iconic record sleeve artwork in the 1970s for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd and, later, Factory Records. He took the first promo photographs of the Sex Pistols, created a highly controversial window display for Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood's clothing shop, SEX, and went on to design the logo of the hugely popular fashion company, BOY. In 1976 Sleazy met Cosey Fanni Tutti, Chris Carter and Genesis P-Orridge and together they formed electronic music provocateurs Throbbing Gristle and Industrial Records, creating one of the first independent record labels of the era and laying the foundation for a new genre of music. The band was infamously described in the Daily Mail by Tory MP Nicholas Fairbairn as "the wreckers of civilisation".

TG ceased operations in 1981, after which Sleazy formed Psychic TV with Genesis P-Orridge and they produced two albums. The second, Dreams Less Sweet included his future life partner Jhonn Balance as a member, with whom he went on to form Coil and to release an extensive body of work up until Jhonn's passing in 2004. Subsequently, Sleazy left the UK to live in Bangkok, Thailand and to continue his artistic and musical vision in the guise of The Threshold HouseBoys Choir and Soisong. Following their original break-up, Throbbing Gristle's legacy steadily grew within the music and art world, leading to their reformation in 2004 and a series of sold-out performances, including in Tate Modern's Turbine Hall.

At the time of his death, Sleazy was in the midst of assembling what was to be Throbbing Gristle's next project: a cover version of Nico's Desertshore album.


Sleazy was a kind and beautiful soul. No words can express how much he will be missed.

-Throbbing Gristle / X-TG
Cosey Fanni Tutti
Chris Carter

Lockdown

No One Cares For Me

Dennis Cooper is one of the few writers living today who is not only transgressive, but has a distinct style of writing that is completely his own. He is dichotomous - his voice is lyrical and poetic, yet stripped down and succinct, unembellished sentences cutting through to naked meaning. Cooper smears his brain across the page, giving us a glimpse inside, as he explores his fascination with the lines between sex/murder, worship/torture, obsession/indifference. He penetrates the mechanics of human desire and motivation through a drug-induced/evolved clarity via ob/subjective observation of others in relation to his personal madness.

Dennis Cooper's books about predatory males who hack up beautiful boys, or dream about it, intimidate some people. Alex James of Blur pulled out of an interview with him, and Queer Nation issued him with a death threat. Even Marilyn Manson refused to let him write a cover story on him for an American music magazine.

But Cooper's books are more than gorefests. They're also romantic. The men take the objects of their desire apart in a bid to understand the awesome power they have over them. The Guardian hit on it when they said that a desire for love infects the carnage. In Cooper's novel 'Try', the central character Ziggy says to his foster father: "If you loved me you wouldn't rim me while I'm crying." Perhaps his work unsettles some people because it unflinchingly dissects his own dark fantasies.



drawings by Math Tinder

At the age of 11 sex and violence linked themselves, quite literally, in the writer's head when a friend he had a crush on split Cooper's head open with an axe. At 12 he hiked to a place in the mountains behind his house where three boys had been raped and killed. Upon reaching the spot, Cooper found himself gripped by a feeling of eroticised fear and fascination. And in the ninth grade Cooper met his beloved friend George Miles. Miles had deep psychological problems and Cooper took him under his wing. Years later, when Cooper was 30, he had a brief love affair with the 27-year-old Miles. The cycle of books (Closer 1989, Frisk 1991, Try 1994, Guide 1997 and Period 1999) were an attempt by Cooper to get to the bottom of both his fascination with sex and violence and his feelings for Miles. This project, which took Cooper nearly twenty years to realize, would later become known as The George Miles Cycle.

Cooper was an outsider and the leader of a group of poets, punks, stoners, and writers. After high school he attended Pasadena City College, and later, Pitzer College, where he had a poetry teacher who was to inspire him to pursue his writing outside of institutions of higher learning.


Deerhunter have cited Dennis Cooper as a lyrical influence.

Deerhunter - But I'm a Boy (mp3)
Deerhunter - When I Taste Blood (mp3)
Deerhunter - Cordless (mp3)

Listen to Deerhunter's latest album 'Halcyon Digest' here.

Ice Cream Truck

Kill The Bill

Awhile back I made a brief post about the atrocious anti-homo bill that is being lobbied in Uganda. Here is an interview conducted by Rachel Maddow to Richard Cohen, the author of 'Coming Out Straight', the book that inspired the proposed legislation.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

If you didn't get enough of 'dude's' BS, check out this video:

Christian Side Hug

Packie wrote: Attention, Christian kids: If you like not having sex, not speaking the Lord’s name in vain, and not being gay, then you’ll love the newest trend in policing typical adolescent behaviors in the name of God. It’s called the The Christian Side-Hug, and it’s here to help the devout avoid the temptation of full frontal hugging. Don’t worry—it’s cool, because they made a “rap” song about it.

According to Stuff Christians Like, there’s no “exact scripture reference” banning normal hugging. But the Side-Hug does significantly lower the “risk of two crotches touching,” which has got to be in the Bible somewhere. Here’s how you do it:

Instead of face to face, you go side to side, putting your arm around the person and your hip against their’s. Still having a hard time mastering it? Pretend you’re taking a photo and you’re both looking at the camera together. The side hug, or A frame as it is also called, is safe for the whole family, friendly and above all holy.

The Christian Side-Hug strikes me as almost skeezily chaste—I’d much rather have a brief normal embrace with a stranger than a hip-tap from a person who I know sexualizes even the most mundane forms of human contact. But the Side-Hug itself is slightly less offensive than the medium being used to promote it: An appropriated version of “rap music” performed by a bunch of white youth pastors who think that mixing in some gang-ish hand signals, tying on a bandana, and securing some fake bling will bring the youth to God.
The Christian Side-Hug rap comes courtesy of the Encounter Generation Conference, an annual Christian youth gathering which hopes to “bring the power, authenticity, and relevance of Jesus Christ to their culture.” I’m afraid that this potent combination of absurd chastity and mock hip-hop will be more likely to bring the power of a school-yard beat-down to these kids’ faces.

Hug An Asian Day

November 20th

Steak House or Gay Bar?

Time for another game. Steak House or Gay Bar? I scored a whopping 73%.

Boi Crush

The Toronto International Film Festival is well underway, and the hype surrounding Xavier Dolan's film J’ai Tué Ma Mère (I Killed My Mother) is stronger than ever. The film is a semi-autobiographical tale of a young gay man coming of age while struggling with his tortured relationship with his mother. The super-cute 20-year-old Québecer wrote, directed, produced, and starred in this film.

Squirt

I was over at Xtra looking for interesting news stories, and/or gay gossip to talk about on the bimonthly radio show I host named Rainbow Radio on Saskatoon's community radio station. I read a few interesting articles like this one, but most importantly, I stumbled upon the BEST GAME EVER! Check it out.