As if the publishers of magazines had enough to worry about. Spiralling costs, less advertisers, and an over-crowded market are forcing print magazines into desperate times. Poor PlanetOut had to unload it’s entire cache of print gayzines a few months ago.  Playgirl is shuttering print operations. I can’t get those cheap bastards at the New Yorker to pay me for my cartoons…It’s a dark time for those of us by the printing press.

 To make matters worse, Mygazines.com is now scanning and uploading YOUR favorite magazines - almost as soon as they are on the newstands!  First we could download music, then tv shows, now magazines!  What is next? I am hoping children and cigarettes….But I digress.

You can go to the site and simply pick the latest issue of - oh lets say OUT, and download it…FOR FREE!  Don’t want OUT? How about Southern Living?  How about Working Mother? Oh it’s free, take them all! C’mon, take them! DO IT!  Reading is good for you!

Our sources in the world of publishing tell us that peeps are peeved! While this is fine for the advertisers, this sucks for magazines who are relying on newstand sales to help perk up there bottom line. And, I am sure their are copyright and trademark issues too. Me, I love free stuff. I’m downloading Memphis Motorcross Monthly and Soap Opera Weekly right now! 

Read more HERE!

Everybody’s favorite matchmaker, Manhunt.net is getting a lot of ink recently. First there is the Out magazine article looking at the site’s impact on gay male culture. Then the gay media blew the news that one of the site’s co-founders is a proud John McCain donor. 

 It’s been talked to death already in other blogs, so I won’t touch on it too much here…Just to point out that for an organization like Manhunt, even this negative PR is great PR. The company has once again found itself in the news, and fairly big news.  For a website that doesnt’ advertise at all - this kind of free publicity is golden.  And honestly, when was the last time you looked at OUT magazine for hard-hitting news?  Their in so much debt, they’d be happy to do a $tory for anyone…

I’m not accusing Manhunt.net of “buying” this coverage, not at all. I am pointing the finger at their spinnsters, who’ve gotten their clients notice in gay magazines across the country and blogspots around the world.  Good job boys! 

Last week, Playboy Enterprises Inc (parent company of Playboy Magazine) reported a net loss of $2.1 million, compared to $1.5 million in profit for the same time period last year.  This following the annoucement of Playgirl’s folding! Sweet Mother of Mayhem, what is going on?”Traditional media are facing a secular shift as a result of changes in consumer behavior and the migration of advertisers to new platforms,â€� Playboy CEO Christie Hefner said in the report to shareholders. She also then begged the lesbian community to “help a sister out” and to “start checking out the hot treats we got in this rag.”   Okay, that part was a lie - but it would be great, right?

The smut peddler posted its largest losses in the area of entertainment, stating that revenue from domestic TV sales was $14.6 million in 2008, down from $21.6 million in the second quarter of 2007.  If we can’t trust p0rn to make us money, what can we invest in? 

For the full scoop, go HERE!

Every night, my fat keister heads over to my local “healthy food” grocery store - to buy way over-priced organic crap. Primarily cause it’s supposedly healthier for you, and also because Brandon who takes care of the salad bar is so-freaking adorable in that hippie-art-student-vegan way.

But buying organic veggies might make you THINK you are avoiding chemicals and helping the planet, but the food won’t be any more healthful, according to research in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.  (Which I read cover to cover every month, thank you very much…) The report, from the University of Copenhagen , said there is ZIPPO evidence that organically grown crops contain more major and trace elements, though they can cost one-third more than other produce. I trust the Danish. They would know. They have natural blonde hair and great cheek bones. They know health.

For the study, animals (and Danish orphans) were fed carrots, kale, peas, apples and potatoes grown three different ways over two seasons. One group was fertilized only with manure, a second was given manure and pesticides, and a third was given chemical fertilizer and pesticides. The real pigs of the bunch were given 2nds too. 

After chowtime, results showed that there were no differences in the levels of nutrients, a news release on the report said. Researchers also saw no difference in the minerals retained by the animals that ate them.  The orphans were not

Just so you don’t think I am making this up….GO HERE!

 

When I am not slaving away in the GFN.com finicial salt-mines, I can usually be found on one of the many LGBT beaches across the globe. Mykynos, Providencetown, Rhode Island, Fort Lauderdale, Rehoboth, Asbury, Galveston…The list goes on and on…To ensure that my skin doesn’t turn into leather - the dreamteam at gaygadget.com found the perfect little device for those of us in late-stage tanorexia: the Personal UV Monitor!

It’s true.

Playgirl Magazine will cease printed publication in January of 2009, going to an ALL web format.  Go HERE for the full scoop. 

While never the classiest magazines (not like US or People - those icons of journalism), we should respect the little soft-core pornlet for being a (on paper) bold attempt at feminising the porn industry, and probably the first mainstream access boys-who-liked-boys had at finding something to stare at…if you know what I mean…And I think you do….(wink-wink)

Playgirl also featured a lot of celebs. The articles - which I don’t even recall if they were in English or Esperanto - were probably good too. But trust, when I was a young boy growing up in Lancaster, Playgirl was like the Ark of the Covenant. 

In a broader sense, this does once again demonstrate the shift in media from print to online. Paper costs, distribution, and plummeting newstand sales are to blame! Yes, yes, yes - I know, this is not a new concept, I am just reiterating it for you stodgy old traditionalists. 

Plus - all porn should be online anyway. 

Sure, it is incredibly easy to avoid the cineplex these days. You’ve got Netflix, ONDemand, and all that other techie stuff that bring movies right into your home. I personally,LOVE going to  the movie theaters. Primarly cause I love popcorn. With butter…loads and loads of butter.  Do not take me on a date and think I will share with you either. You will pay for the BIG popcorn, and get none.  NONE!

While it is fantastic to rent movies in the privacy of your own home, there is something to be said for enjoying a film with an audience (and with popcorn - MOVIE popcorn - no that Orville Redenbacher crap…).  After all, that is how the director/creator intended their masterpiece to be watched…ON THE BIG SCREEN! But since Brokeback Mountain, we have certainly had a drought in gay cinema.  We know from hunger. 

But now, gay entertainment giant TLA is taking some of their movies (that too often go from the Festival circuit to the DVD pile) on a road trip!  TLA Releasing Presents offers 6 movies in three major cities (New York’s Quad Cinema starts this Friday!) 

This posts’ pics are from Bangkok Love Story. It’s FANTASTIC.  I laughed, I cried, I struggled to understand the Thai language…If you like melodramas, or noirs, you will love this film. It also made me immediatly book a flight to Bangkok so I can find the two male leads. Yum.

And HERE is the series trailer too! 

The buzz around the media world is that former Golden Girl, and supreme funny-lady, Estelle Getty has succumbed to her long battle with Lewy Body Dementia.

Getty will always be fondling remembered by her fans worldwide as Sophia Petrillo, the wise-cracking fireball on not only The Golden Girls, but two subsequent spin-offs. The Golden Palace and Empty Nest. Those spin-offs stunk, Getty was absolutely the only reason to watch them. 

It wasn’t just her talent that won her devout followers in the LGBTQ community.  In 1991 she came to the rescue of her 29 year-old nephew who was in the final stages of AIDS and near death. Getty had the young man flown from his Greensboro home to an LA hospice, to ensure his medical care and comfort were met.

In 2000, she revealed that she had Parkinson’s Disease and osteoporosis. In 2002, the media reported that she was also suffering from Alzheimer’s, but it was later discovered that she was really afflicted with Lewy Body Dementia and both the Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diagnoses were incorrect. At the 2003 Golden Girls reunion, Getty was noticably absent.Getty died in her Los Angeles home today, three days before her 85th birthday. 

And not Action Comics…Action, like as in nooky-nooky.

Comic book fans for years have wondered about the sexual antics of their favorite comic book heroes. While movies and television shows have touched upon some adult-style love, the comics have remained fairly chaste.

Until Now…

Newsarama has a detailed interview with Ultimate SpiderMan author Brian Michael Bendis about the comic’s forthcoming annual. In it, a young (and unwed) Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson - who are high school students in this series - adress “getting physical”.

Go HERE if your Spider-sense is tingling…

 

This morning,  Bravo TV announced the cast of their final season of Project Runway (before the show jumps to gyno-an-gay Lifetime), and it’s got a bevy of homosexuals! Seven out of the eight boys like boys! Pity that lone straight guy, don’t yah? 

Our pals at AfterElton have pics of all the new pieces….so hop over HERE to find your summer designer crush.  While we here at GFN still miss that adorable Christian of last season, we’ve made initial eye-candy out of Blaine, Wesley, Keith and Daniel.