The New Gay » Photography

San Francisco: April Scene Queen – Out n’ About in SF

Bryan Garcia — Mon, 02 May 2011 17:00:19 +0000

Scene queens, how ’bout a little April redux? And if you missed previous month’s editions, check em’ out here:

January
February
March

Truthfully April was a short month for me having been away on vacation for the first half of the month. For the second half of the month, I chose a few old stand-bys such as Go BANG! (see my interview with DJ Sergio) at Deco Lounge and the spectacularly dark Dark Room at The Hot Spot. In between, we saw the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence celebrate another Easter Sunday complete with a Hunky Jesus and some booty-shaking courtesy of sfBoylesque.

Go BANG! at Deco Lounge on Saturday, April 23.
Easter Sunday with The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence at Dolores Park on Sunday, April 24.
Dark Room at The Hot Spot on Saturday, April 30.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are the property of Bryan Garcia and The New Gay.

"You can disco."

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

sfBoylesque

Hunky Jesus

Dark Room's Daniel Filipkowski

Dancing in the Dark Room

Phatima Rude

San Francisco: February Scene Queen – Out n’ About in SF

Bryan Garcia — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:00:53 +0000

Hello, scene queens! Time for the February redux– another bunch of pictures from San Francisco’s alternative and queer culture. And if you missed previous month’s editions, check em’ out here:

January

February was all about live music. Some queer (MEN), some not (Big Eagle). Some just weird (Sic Alps), some hot (Cat Power). The month opened with the second of a series of Clift Sessions at the trendy Clift Hotel featuring MEN. MEN is fronted by Le Tigre’s JD Samson. Later that weekend, Cat Power nailed a fantastic show at The Fillmore. We all speculated on whether Chan Marshall would hide behind the speakers or actually perform. Fortunately, it was the latter. Basta! Meanwhile, Big Eagle took the stage for the folkYEAH Winter Residency at Slim’s to promote their debut album called Willow Creek. “Broken Heart” is already a front-runner for my favorite song of 2011. Alt-indie-country at its finest… The Mantles helped Sic Alps launch their new album at The Eagle Tavern’s Thursday Night Live series. Beard Summit, having already celebrated the final International Bear Rendezvous 2011 at The Eagle Tavern, kicked off a new bear tradition by opening a live music series at The Lone Star Saloon. Going into the final homestretch of the month, Noisepop 2011 was all over San Francisco showcasing the year’s (so far anyway) best indie music acts at various clubs around the city. Unfortunately, most shows sold out (TNG was hoping to check out No Age at the Rickshaw Stop), but thank god Bender’s Bar is always open, always free and a good bet to catch local music like Felsen and The Brokenmusicbox in between the name-brand bands.

Til’ next month, y’all!

MEN at the Clift Hotel on Tuesday, February 1.
The Meek and Cat Power at The Fillmore on Friday, February 4.
Big Eagle at Slim’s on Tuesday, February 8.
The Mantles and Sic Alps at The Eagle Tavern, February 24.
Beard Summit at The Lone Star Saloon, February 25.
Felsen and The Brokenmusicbox at Bender’s Bar for Noisepop 2011, February 26.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are the property of Bryan Garcia and The New Gay.

MEN at the Clift Hotel

JD Samson of MEN

The Meek at The Fillmore

Cat Power at The Fillmore

Chan Marshall of Cat Power

Big Eagle at Slim's

Robyn Miller of Big Eagle

The Mantles

Sic Alps

Mike Donovan of Sic Alps

Beard Summit

Felsen

The Brokenmusicbox

Kimberly Contreras of The Brokenmusicbox

San Francisco: January Scene Queen – Out n’ About in SF

Bryan Garcia — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:00:59 +0000

Are you a scene queen? TNG San Francisco Contributor, Bryan Garcia, shares pictures from San Francisco during the month of January.

The Neighborhood is a monthly local music showcase at 111 Minna Gallery, and they opened January with up and coming indie darlings, Geographer. These guys may or may not be queer, but the big dancing queen hogging the front of the stage sure was… Detroit-based DJ Mike Servito brought the house down at Honey Soundsystem over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend… Sergio hosted DJ Eddy Bauer at Go BANG! the following weekend… Some Thing hosted “Something Hard Something French” for the Hard French Winter Ball at The Stud… And finally, DJ Le Perv took a dark, dark drive down memory lane for his new Dark Room party featuring 80s-90s era goth, punk and rock.

Geographer at 111 Minna Gallery from the Neighborhood showcase on Wednesday, January 5.
MLK Honey Soundsystem at The Holy Cow, Sunday, January 16.
Go BANG! at Deco Lounge, Saturday, January 22.
Something Hard Something French at The Stud, Friday, January 28.
Dark Room Debut Party at The Hot Spot, Saturday, January 29.

Click on picture to see a larger image.

Unless otherwise noted, all images are the property of Bryan Garcia and The New Gay.

Eye Candy: untitled – January 13th

Hans — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:00:16 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

untitled
Judy Ng

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Dream World – January 6th

Hans — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:00:12 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Dream World
shandopics

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Icy Heart – December 30th

Hans — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 19:00:20 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Icy Heart
kwhit24

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Santa – December 23rd

Hans — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:00:50 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

kwhit24

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: shots of Ken – December 9th

Hans — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 15:00:02 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

r.j.b.

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: untitled – December 2nd

Hans — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 19:00:02 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

untitled
Judy Ng

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Co będzie Twoją przygodą?: Gay Ghost Story (NSFW)

Jude — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:00:03 +0000

FICTION

“In the Ramble”

It was rare for young Avery to find himself on a piece of New York City he’d never been to before. In the six years since moving there, he thought he’d come to know every inch of it. He’d been to Central Park enough times, but the good thirty-something acres making up the Ramble were completely unfamiliar to him until that night. Peering in from the 81st Street entrance of the park, he could make out only the lit path as it snaked its way in and disappeared. On the other side of the street, the natural history museum sat dark and dormant. During the day, it watched this block of Central Park West fill with school buses, carrying children on their field trips, with sack lunches they would eat on the steps next to Teddy Roosevelt’s horse.

Avery had just spent the evening having dinner with his boss at the West End Avenue apartment he shared with his partner of thirty-five years. “You’ve never seen Robert DeNiro in Cruising?” his boss had asked, stopping a spoonful of pumpkin soup inches from his face. The film was out for five years before Avery was even born. “It’s probably on Netflix,” his boss’s partner said. “Yep. It is.” His MacBook was opened toward him on the counter.

“No, don’t watch it—it’s a joke,” Avery’s boss said. “But you’ll get an idea of how things used to be for gay men in New York. When guys went for a blow job in the park and got a baseball bat to the skull instead.”

“It happened to a friend of ours from Columbia, right there in Central Park, in the Ramble. I want to say 1978. And it was this time of year, too, just before Halloween.”

“Fag-bashers almost took his head right off,” Avery’s boss added.

Avery would cut through the bottom left corner of the park, to get to a Q-train at 57^th Street and eventually home to Brooklyn. Though his iPod had died on the way uptown, he kept the earphones in, only listening to his own muffled footsteps. Each passing lamp post kept him from being swallowed by the black that such a moonless night provided. A shriek cried out from the backseat of a taxi as it flew by. Probably drunk college kids, coming in or out of the city, but it was just enough to startle him. He also thought he heard a cackling—maybe from the cab, maybe somewhere else—as he continued on the path and the lights of Central Park West disappeared behind him.

It was not just his own footsteps Avery soon began to hear. He stopped, yanked out his earphones, and listened. Nothing. He tried to pick up the pace, only to stop again. It sounded like heavy boots, with each step having the rattle of a chain or spur. There was nothing around him but the twisted trees, and whatever lived among them. He could see a tunnel up ahead. Perhaps it had just been some kind of echo.

The wind picked up as he neared the tunnel, like heavy breathing at the back of his neck. It almost seemed to call out to him. Averyyy… He heard the footsteps again, this time directly above as he crept his way into the darkness of the tunnel. Heavy boots, and that metallic rattle. And though he knew the tunnel was completely empty, he felt the stare of many eyes on him as he went through. He heard the whispering, the soft moans and belt buckles of the many men once there before him. As he came out, he craned his neck out to look up, but saw no one.

Avery spun around. A man was now there, standing at the other end of the tunnel. He could not see a face. The man began to walk toward him, the familiar clap of his boots coming closer and closer, until he was cloaked in darkness and Avery could no longer make him out. Then the footsteps stopped and the tunnel was silent.

Before even realizing he had stopped walking, Avery heard the sound of a zipper above him. Then he saw the black boots, a silver spur at each heel. The man from inside the tunnel was now standing on top of it, his hand digging into the open fly of his pants. He wore a leather vest, opened to show the rippling of his stomach, and the downward curve of his hip. He couldn’t have been that much older than Avery. A faint chloride smell began to permeate the air around them, the smell of soil soaked by a century’s worth of cum. His dick was out, the purple head pointed right at Avery.

Without thinking, Avery climbed up to the man, knelt before him. It was as if his limbs and mouth had been possessed, pulling the foreskin down in his teeth, running his hand up the light fur of his torso to a cold, hard nipple. The man grabbed Avery by his hair, pulling him up to his feet. He wore a leather hood, its mouth zipped shut. Avery reached up, took hold of the zipper and drew it across. A steady stream of hot blood poured out. The man pulled Avery in, and planted a violent kiss. Avery struggled to free himself, tugged at the mask until it finally came off. There was nothing underneath. No face, or head, at all. The figure, too, had disappeared before him, leaving Avery alone in the dark, his lips still buzzing and the copper tinge of blood lingering in his mouth.

A siren cut the air. It was an NYPD cruiser racing through the park, its red strobes reaching all the way to Avery before speeding off toward the east side. And the Ramble was silent once again.

Photos courtesy of my boyfriend (c)Guillermo Riveros

Check out the new guillermoriveros.com for more

Eye Candy: needle and arm #3 – November 18th

Hans — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 20:00:40 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

needle and arm #3
r.j.b

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Events: The Photographed Faces of DADT

Troy Chatterton — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 15:00:24 +0000

Joseph Rocha, Washington D.C., 2010

On Wednesday, I received the assignment to cover photographer Vincent Cianni’s talk about his new project ‘Gays In the Military: How America Thanked Me.’ The seed of anticipation was planted.

On Thursday, I set off for the city, but before getting on the subway, stopped at the Outpost Café for a cup of coffee. As I waited in line – a book caught my eye, sticking out of the magazine rack. It was a copy of ‘Unfriendly Fire’ by Nathaniel Frank – with a blue piece of paper jutting out of its pages. It was a note from Nathan, thanking the Outpost Café for its hospitality while he wrote most of the manuscript in the café.

Once in the city, I found myself walking along Washington Square Park weaving through the many students and young adults dressed in their military uniforms. A spirit of pride and excitement was in the air. And I couldn’t help imagine what the scene would look like, sound like, and feel like – when gay men and women can openly serve in the military. I will tell you this, it will be nothing less of resplendent. The Veterans Day Parade will be turned in to an Autumn Gay Pride Parade. It will mark the beginning of a new model of who a gay man or lesbian can be.

On Friday, I woke up to the New York Time’s headline, ‘Little Harm Found if Gay Ban Is Lifted.’ After all the lives that have been smothered, we learn, what many have known all along. Little harm! Nathaniel Frank asked in his books prologue, “What has been the cost of openly gay service to military effectiveness? Answer: It hasn’t sapped the military, and the costs have been nil.”

Nathaniel also writes that “The military’s policy on gays and lesbians has been transformed from a residual hodgepodge of a bygone era to a carefully articulated modern legal morass that wreaks havoc with the lives of service members and with the capacity of our nation to defend itself – all courtesy of an administration that promised it would make things better.”

And so I arrive on Sunday, at powerHouse Books. Roughly 30 have come. And while Mr. Cianni sets up, a quote is projected on to the wall:

“I am a soldier. I am a gay man. I believe there is no greater honor than to serve in uniform. I cannot tell my name.” – anonymous soldier

Mr. Cianni says from the start that his project is not about “don’t ask, don’t tell.” It is about the ban on homosexuals in the military. Sparked by an interview on the radio with Pvt. Nathanael Bodon’s mother, Mary Bodon – he was moved by her love, support, and certainty that her son would be okay. And so since November 2009 he has been interviewing gay service members who are long retired, discharged, or still active. Mr. Cianni’s focus seems to be on the effect of invisibility, forced dishonesty, loss of dignity, shame, chronic fear, and as one soldier said, “dreams being crushed.”

Mr. Cianni has chosen to photograph almost all of his subjects in their homes, and shot in black and white. In keeping with his interest in the mental cost of this ban on homosexuality in the military – he gives these men and women an opportunity to speak. Audio of his interviews are played and we hear, in their own words, the effect this ban has had on their lives.

It is in Joseph Rocha’s (pictured above) pleading words that the heart of the matter is simply articulated. “People have the right of a human relationship. Having a human aspect to my life.”

There is no joy in Mr. Cianni’s work. How could there be? DADT literally stripped gay men and lesbians of their full humanity. Although I would argue that many along the way refused to be completely stripped and found their humanity and joy in spite of this policy.

What Mr. Cianni has done, is incredibly important, he has given these men and women an opportunity for their voices to be heard, and their stories told. It is hard difficult truth. It is a painful progress that seems necessary for what comes next. Joy?

There will be a day in the coming years when the front pages of every newspaper across America are filled with joyful faces.

There will come an October day in the coming years when gay soldiers march down 5^th Avenue with their heads held high – and on that day, and like the soldiers, America will be more fully itself.

Note: Mr. Cianni has kindly allowed The New Gay to be the first to publish the photo above of Joseph Rocha.

Eye Candy: Sentinel – November 3rd

Hans — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:00:02 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Sentinel
TNG

The Statue of Freedom, which sits atop the dome of the US Capitol building in Washington DC – a building will that will be a lot less friendly to the LGBT community in the very near future, regardless of what you might think about how the last two years have gone for us in Washington.

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Remembrance – October 27th

Hans — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 14:00:15 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Remembrance
TNG

A vigil was held last night in Washington, DC to remember the young lives recently lost to anti-LGBT bullying.

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Enlightenment – October 21st

Hans — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 17:00:38 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Enlightenment
shandopics

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: San Francisco Salute – October 7th

Hans — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:00:16 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

San Francisco Salute
otheruser

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Lovers – September 23rd

Hans — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:00:39 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

lovers
r.j.b

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: untitled – September 9th

Hans — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 18:00:47 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

untitled
Ed Jackson

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Shoes v. Boots – September 2nd

Hans — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:00:00 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Shoes v. Boots
Michael Hicks

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: lights and light – August 19th

Hans — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 18:00:53 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

lights and light
toban nichols

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

In Their Own Voices: Proud to Serve

Hans — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:00:33 +0000

Jo Ann Santangelo is on a mission to let the stories of LGBT veterans who were discharged under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, or served and suffered in silence, be heard. The result is a touching, often heart-wrenching work in progress composed of still shots and spoken word accounts collected over the last year.

Proud to Serve from Jo Ann Santangelo on Vimeo.

She’s about to start a coast to coast road trip to photograph and record the voices of ex-servicemembers, fully funded by generous donations from her supporters. You can follow her journey on Facebook and Twitter.

Proud to Serve will premiere at the LGBT Center in Manhattan on Veterans Day – November 11th, 2010.

In Pictures: NOM DC Rally

Hans — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 13:00:36 +0000

If I had to pick a running theme for the ironically-named National Organization for Marriage (NOM) rally, it would be “sore losers.” There was senseless ranting, interminable claims that they were not bigots (What’s the alternative? Just being an idiot?), and conspiracy theories on the level of Lyndon LaRouche.

They had all the thinly veiled hate in the world – masquerading as sensible Christian love – on their side, but not a solitary sound legal argument to be heard. It’s the essence of their movement, a fallacy summed up two weeks ago by Judge Vaughn Walker: “Moral disapproval alone is an improper basis on which to deny rights to gay men and lesbians. The evidence shows conclusively that Proposition 8 enacts, without reason, a private moral view that same-sex couples are inferior to opposite-sex couples.”

They day that they a majority of Americans understand what those words mean will be a day that we come closer than ever before to realizing the dream that this nation was founded upon. Until then, kick back, make some popcorn, and enjoy the wingnuttery.

Eye Candy: San Francisco Salute – August 5th

Hans — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:00:17 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

San Francisco Salute
otheruser

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Civil Disobedience #5 – July 29th

Hans — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:00:11 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Civil Disobedience #5
Hans

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I hate putting my own photos in this column, seriously (photogs – we need more of you!). This one’s doubly relevant today, though, because it features GetEQUAL and portrays an act of civil disobedience in our nation’s capital – an anti-DADT protest at the White House earlier this year that resulted in several arrests. In case you hadn’t heard, our very own Zack was arrested yesterday while participating in a GetEQUAL ENDA protest in the Capitol rotunda. Here’s hoping that what I assume was a night spent in lockup went well, and here’s another to him for keeping up the good fight.

Cheers

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net

Eye Candy: Queer as Folk Pop House Show – July 22nd

Hans — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:00:30 +0000

Each week, I’ll be picking a particularly good shot from the TNG Flickr pool to give one of our contributors some special attention.

Queer as Folk Pop House Show
kwhit24

The TNG Flickr pool is open to anyone with a Flickr account. We’d love to see your work in there.

Questions? Suggestions? Send it to hans@thenewgay.net