More Stats

As requested, here's the JMG readers browser share. For the record, I use IE at home and at work. I know, I know, I am a luddite when it come to these things. I'm told I should switch to Firefox, but IE seems to work just fine. What are the advantages? (Clicky pic-y makey biggy).

Viread Shows Potential As HIV Preventive

Early testing of HIV therapy drug Viread as a preventive for HIV has shown promising results in a study funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. Single daily doses of Viread and a placebo were given to almost 1000 African women in the study. Only 2 of the women taking Viread contracted HIV, versus 6 of the women taking the placebo. Interestingly, taking part in the study seemed to cause the participants to practice safer sex and have fewer partners, as scientists expected those on the placebo to contract HIV at a much higher rate. Other larger studies are planned, including one involving 1400 gay men in Peru. The cynic in me wonders if this news may spur more U.S. gay men to acquire Viread from their HIV+ friends or through the internet and begin their own private study, a phenomenon we are already starting to see.

Morning View - Guggenheim Museum

The Numbers Don't Lie

Since Apple only has 5% of the market share, yet over four times that many JMG readers use Macs, my conclusions are:

1. The gays love Macs.

2. The gays use these Macs to read JMG.

...so therefore...

3. The gays love JMG!

It's right there in the numbers people! (These stats only represent the last 100 JMG visitors, but the percentages stay amazingly constant overall.)

Back On The Shit List

Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) has rescinded his support of the GenderPAC/HRC Diversity Statement. Last week I blogged that he had signed the document, to organizers' surprise. Put old Ricky back on the Santorum List.

Linkyloveland

-Wednesday, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC performed the national anthem at RFK Stadium, as part of Night Out At The National's, the annual gay & lesbian night for DC's pro baseball team. AOL Gay & Lesbian editor Kenneth Hill has the stirring video of their performance. Check out GayBaseballDays.com for gay nights at the ballpark near you.

-Check out Cinncinnati photographer/artist/blogger Chris Glass' beautifully designed site. I could look at his photos all day. I've been meaning to direct y'all over there for quite awhile, especially after I caught Chris' funny lip sync'd rip on Fiona Apple.

-Visit my occasional drinking buddy and fellow smartass, Chicago blogger Palochi, for a hilarious list of suggested names for the rides at a proposed military-themed theme park outside of Chicago. My favorite: It's A Small New World Order. As a commenter said, it's comedy gold.

-DC blogger and scruffaniac Jimbo has just finished a week of Porn Star 'Stache blogging. He even used that "Firechief of Itchboro, New Jersey" picture of me that all of you had so much fun mocking.

No Big Whoop

OK, so the new drill is that we cannot carry drinks and toiletries onto a plane. Big deal. I have no problem with this. The biggest downside for me with likely be increased rage at non-compliant passengers, who already drive me to near-violence by insisting on bringing ginormous "carry-on" luggage into the cabin. From now on, I'll just stow my backpack inside my larger suitcase, check it, and stroll onto the plane with a book. So the days of carry-on luggage might be over. Think how fast pre-flight boarding could go now. In a way, it's a good thing. No big whoop.

Morning View - Big Apple Store

Here's the glass cube entrance over the subterranean Apple Store at Fifth Avenue and 59th Street, which I go past every single day and will never ever ever shop in, ever.

3:45PM

iwantitiwantitiwantit

The "world's largest plasma" television (103 honkin' inches!) is on display in Grand Central's Vanderbilt Hall, as part of a promotion by Panasonic. In the crowd, mixed in with the reporters, cameramen, and Panasonic execs, are panting middle-aged couch potatoes like myself. For you, gentle readers, I pushed my way through the salivating thongs to get this almost unobscured shot of my new 8' lover. Now to find an apartment that it could fit in.

Art schmart. Frame your flat-screen and run a Greatest Hits Of The Masters slideshow on it, smartly hung over your video fireplace. Where do you hang your video family? (All my video boyfriends live on my computer. If only we had a disc-sweeper for the real life versions.)

Hillcrest Hardware

I found this fun 30-second commercial for a gay owned Ace Hardware in San Diego's Hillcrest gayborhood. I know when I think of power drills, I think of drag queens. Don't you? Thanks go out to Hillcrest Hardware's Bruce, for letting me post this.

Morning View - Atlas At Rockefeller Center

As the sun set behind Rockefeller Center, I took this picture of Atlas, who carries the world on his shoulder as shoppers peruse the Banana Republic nearby. Originally, I wanted this shot to demonstrate how Atlas resembles Mussolini, which created controversy when the sculpture was built in 1937. When I got home, I realized that Atlas' face was in shadow, but that I had gotten a rather interesting shot of his basket. I am a third grader, yes.

Open Thread Thursday

I'm starving on this diet. Feed me with words. What's delicious?

Clear Channel Interview

If you want to catch my interview on Pride Radio, you can stream it here. Clear Channel's lovely Jared informs me that the show will play about 600 times over the next 5 days.

Wednesday: 6pm & 10pm.
Thursday: 1am, 9am, 5pm.
Friday: 1pm, 5pm, 10pm.
Saturday: 2am, 11am, 4pm.
Sunday: 11am, 3pm, 11pm.

Somebody get those folks some content, STAT!

CNL CEO Tom Hutchinson: Homophobe

As I noted three weeks ago, Florida's Orange County has made it illegal to deny housing based on sexual orientation. Today comes the news that this move has cost Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty the support of his largest re-election backer, Orlando-based CNL Hotels & Resorts CEO Tom Hutchinson, who emailed Crotty to say he was pulling his support because of Crotty's "favoring the absolutely ridiculous vote on legal protection for equal housing for gays." Hutchinson goes on to say, "I am not interested in supporting candidates with seemingly zero Christian biblical principals on the issues regarding the alternative gay lifestyle."

It is unbelievable that the head of a prominent hotel chain, one that features many very high-end properties (the Arizona Biltmore, the Claremont), would risk alienating a substantial portion of his customer base in this manner. I've put a call in to Lauren Harris, CNL's VP of Marketing & Communications, to see how she reconciles being one of the largest hoteliers in Orlando (a town which this year enjoyed the business of 140,000 GayDays attendees) with the outrageous statements of her boss. I look forward to her call. I have a feeling Ms. Harris is having an interesting week.

I've also discovered that the Courtyard Marriott at Lake Buena Vista, a CNL property, is listed as a HOST HOTEL on one of the Orlando GayDay sites. Is that how it goes, Tom? You'll take our dirty homo money, but otherwise we can go fuck ourselves? If anybody is planning on visiting Orlando soon, here's a list of the CNL properties to avoid:

Courtyard Marriott Village at Lake Buena Vista
JW Marriott Grande Lakes Orlando
Embassy Suites Orlando Airport
Ritz-Carlton Grande Lakes Orlando
SpringHill Suites/Marriott Village at Lake Buena Vista
Fairfield Inn/Marriott Village at Lake Buena Vista

If you already have bookings at any of these hotels, you know what to do.

I'll be calling the various GayDay groups to see if they intend on giving CNL any more of their business. Here's where the other CNL properties around the country are located. In NYC, there's the Hampton Inn Chelsea, where many gay tourists stay. Personally, I'm no longer considering the CNL-owned San Francisco Marriott on Second Street for my Folsom visit in September, which is where I stayed in 2003. Too bad, it's in a fantastic location for the fair. But this year, I'll be happy to walk my homosexual wallet a few extra blocks right past that joint. And my number of stays at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Arizona Biltmore will stop at the current five.

UPDATE: CNL's Marketing VP Lauren Harris promptly returned my call to say that she wanted to email me CNL's official position. Her email follows.

Joe -- Really appreciate the call, and wanted to forward a company statement on behalf of CNL Hotels & Resorts. {On a related note, you may have also seen the personal statement that came directly from Mr. Hutchison, which was printed in Tuesday's Orlando Sentinel. This was personally provided to the Sentinel, and not issued by the company.} Many thanks.

CNL Hotels & Resorts Statement: The personal views of Tom Hutchison do not reflect the views of CNL Hotels & Resorts or our affiliate companies, and are not necessarily those of our associates. It is the policy of CNL Hotels & Resorts, Inc. to grant equal employment opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to race, color, creed, sex, religion, age, national origin, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship, physical or mental disability that does not prohibit performance of essential job functions, veteran’s status, or any other conditions or identifications against which discrimination is prohibited.

Best,
Lauren Harris
Vice President, Marketing & Communications
CNL Hotels & Resorts

JMG: Thanks Lauren, but this isn't about employment discrimination. Concerning gays, THAT is still legal in Orange County and many other places CNL does business. This is about housing discrimination. Your company is in the housing business. By the way, how do you suppose your thousands of gay employees feel about working for Tom Hutchinson now? Good luck with productivity, hiring and retention.

UPDATE II: It's worth noting that Mayor Rich Crotty is no shining knight for gay causes. According to the Orlando Sentinel, he was pressured into supporting the housing discrimination legislation as a compromise for not supporting a more comprehensive gay rights law, one that presumably would have included employment discrimination.

UPDATE III: Three days ago, an Orlando judge approved a $35 million dollar settlement that CNL must pay in a class-action suit naming Hutchison (among others), which was filed by investors who claim that the hotel giant "obscured its financial condition around the time the company was preparing a merger agreement and stock offering." Stockholders are worried that further bad publicity will diminish the CNL stock value even more.

Where, When, Who

Yesterday, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn made public a plan that, among other things, will require NYC nightclubs to purchase and use ID-scanning technology, ostensibly to prevent minors from using counterfeit IDs to gain entrance. Of course, no one is expecting that nightclubs will harvest and sell customer information to marketers. And surely no one is expecting the police or other agencies to want to know who went to which nightclub on what night. Oh wait, I've already seen a Law & Order episode where this happened. And they caught the bad guy who was killing HIV+ gay men, so I guess it's OK. We really shouldn't be worried if the government knows exactly where we are, who we are with, and what we are doing at all times. I'm not doing anything wrong. I don't need to be worried.

Girl

Tuesday, 130PM

I'm sitting with my friend Ken in the Grand Central lower-level food court enjoying some Chirping Chicken. I think I could eat Chirping Chicken every day. I look over Ken's shoulder and notice a really hot guy standing in line at Eat-A-Pita. I nudge Ken to turn around.

"Oof! Check out that guy."

Ken hardly blinks. "Girl."

"No, I mean the guy with the shaved head. "

"Girl."

"What?"

"What are you not understanding? That is a girl. A female. One of those things we don't fuck."

"No, it isn't!"

"Joe, I saw her walk by. She has those titty thingies. Girl."

Ten seconds later, that handsome, broad-shouldered, tattooed guy with the shaved head turned around and almost put my eyes out with a pair of perfect titties. Ken was right. Girl. This has been happening to me more and more since I got to New York City. I don't know if the stone butch dykes are just especially hot here or if it's just a series of coincidences, but more than a few times in the last year my head has been turned by a sexy bulldagger. I don't mind it. It's fascinating.

Statement Has Santorum On It

Stunning organizers, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has signed the GenderPAC and Human Rights Campaign's Diversity Statement, which asks members of Congress to affirm that they will not discriminate in their own hiring based on sexual orientation or gender identity and expression. Santorum signed after meeting with a member of GenderYOUTH. Since 2003, 170 members of Congress have signed the document, but only 20 of them are Republicans. Is your Congressperson on board?

Morning View - Sherry-Netherland Hotel

The Sherry-Netherland Hotel has been standing its Gothic guard over the southeast corner of Central Park since 1927. At 42 stories, it has only 154 rooms and 100 of them are devoted to permanent residents, about whose multi-floor apartments Travel & Leisure devoted a portion of their June 2006 issue, prompting me to walk down and take this picture. In the 70's, the famously exclusive disco Raffles operated in the basement of the Sherry-Netherland.

Instant Disco History #8 - Disco Lucy

I'm sorry to do this to you, but history is sometimes ugly.

Cheesy and annoyingly catchy, the discofied theme song from I Love Lucy reached #24 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1976. A one-off hit from a group of studio musicans that dubbed themselves Wilton Street Place Band, Disco Lucy was produced by Trevor Lawrence, who recruited Lynda Lawrence (his wife) and Sandray Tucker to perform the vocals. (Yes, vocals. But not the lyrics that Desi Arnaz used that time he sang I Love Lucy And She Loves Me on the show.) Lydna was a Supreme for about 10 minutes during the 70's and at the time of this recording she and Sandray were touring as Stevie Wonder's backup singers, "Wonderlove".

According to legend, Lucille Ball herself heard Disco Lucy while at Studio 54 and reportedly loved it. Desi Arnaz was so pleased to have the copyright income, he made plans to record an entire album of disco versions of other songs from the show, such as Babalu, but this thankfully never came to pass. File Disco Lucy under "Disco/Funny/Mistakes."

Disco Lucy, Island Records, 1976.
Download Disco Lucy here.

Trivia I: The 12" single of Disco Lucy was the first 12" from Island Records.

Triva II: Lynda Lawrence currently performs with FLOS, Former Ladies Of the Supremes, whose website notes that they are "graciously endorsed by Diana Ross." I love it.

Siruis MP3

In case you've been tortured because you missed hearing me on Sirius on Friday, here's an MP3 of my bit.
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1 Bdrm / 1 Bath = 1 Arm / 1 Leg

Today's AM New York riffs on the fact that the average apartment in Manhattan now costs over $1000/sq.foot, or an average of $1.3 million, by listing what $1.3 million could get you in other cities. It's a common device of the NYC newspapers whenever new housing stats come out. Here are the examples AM NY uses today:

Boise: 6 bedrooms, 6 baths, 4-car garage,6400 sq. feet.
Austin: 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, 4600 sq. feet.
San Diego: 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3900 sq.feet.
Seattle: 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 3500 sq.feet.
Phoenix: 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 3500 sq. feet.
Chicago: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3200 sq. feet.
Portland (ME): 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, 3100 sq feet.
London: 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, 1264 sq. feet.
Paris: 1 bedroom, 1 bath, 1260 sq. feet.

Everytime I've mentioned certain benefits of living in New York City, people wade in and accuse me of being provincial and snooty. But as Eric says, the cost of living should earn us some bragging rights on the other shit. Seriously.

HomoQuotable - Armistead Maupin

"Once you start to tell tales about your own life, it's impossible to keep the artifice out of it. No matter how frank an autobiography may appear to be, it's still a very carefully contrived contraption. " - Armistead Maupin, revealing that he may never write a memoir. (via Advocate.com)