Jun 29, 2009

Spock makes out with a male humanoid!

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Nope, this isn’t about the Kirk/Spock slash fiction but rather about Zachary Quinto, the actor who plays Spock in the new Star Trek movie (and Sylar in the TV series Heroes), and his kinky sauna scene in the 2006 TV show So NoTORIous.

Basically, way before Zach became famous as Sylar and before his acclaimed Vulcan role, he played Sasan, an openly gay Iranian-American character in So NoTORIous, which had Tori Spelling in the leading role. The sauna scene in particular had him make out with another guy, to the disgust of the lady sharing the sauna with them (the sauna is apparently unisex). I find the guy he makes out with pretty sexy, actually.

You can see a video of the scene on YouTube. Unfortunately, I couldn’t embed the video here so I just pasted a screenshot of the “hot” scene below. Consider this as a light respite from the serious blog posts that I’ve been doing lately. :-)

Update: Zachary Quinto came out in 2011. So I guess scenes like the one below were a clue to his actual orientation?

Screenshot of the sauna scene

Jun 28, 2009

The 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots

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Forty years ago today, the Stonewall riots started in New York City. Those riots marked the birth of the modern gay rights movement, one that is characterized by militant activism and pride consciousness. The Stonewall anniversary (June 28) has been romanticized to such a degree that it has become the most important “holiday” among gay men and women (World AIDS Day, December 1, and the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia [IDAHO], May 17, being two others). Stonewall was so important that I consider them to be one of the three landmark moments in the history of gay people (the other two are the AIDS pandemic and the rise of the Internet).

Just so you know, Stonewall is the reason why we have the (in)famous White Parties during the last weekend of June in Malate and elsewhere. Unfortunately, this year’s White Party in Malate has been canceled due to budgetary constraints. So, individual clubs and bars have organized their own mini White Parties, like the foam party that I think happened last night at Queeriosity Palace.

I’ve attended a White Party once in Malate (just to try it), but that was years ago. While I support the idea of “gay pride” in principle, I went to the White Party just to party a bit (and possibly meet other guys) and not really to participate in the larger pride movement. As I blogged back in December, I don’t feel proud to be gay nor do I feel it is necessary for me at all. Despite going out to gay-oriented places, I’m still very much in the closet to the vast majority of people I know: colleagues in the office, friends from college, batchmates in high school, and especially family and relatives. With my mostly closeted status, gay pride is a concept that I certainly can’t embrace (at least for the moment).

Forty years is a nice round time period deserving of attention. But June 28, 2009 for me is just another day, with this post as a celebratory token of sorts. Will I be more un-apathetic come the golden anniversary? I guess time will tell. But then, I’m not inclined to lean one way or the other.

How about you? What is June 28, 2009 for you?

Jun 24, 2009

Two interesting stories from Inquirer.net

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I generally enjoy browsing the newspaper whether on dead-tree versions or online. Well, here are a couple of recent articles I’ve read from Inquirer.net that you might find interesting. Of course they are related to our PLU world. One is a police report about a carnapping during an eyeball and the other is a lifestyle article of a daughter’s confession about her gay dad.

‘Text mate’ steals car during ‘eyeball’

A man lost a company-issued vehicle to his text mate after they agreed to meet for the first time in an apartelle in Quezon City earlier this month.

The car thief later abandoned the vehicle at the Teacher’s Camp in Baguio City where it was found by the police.

I like how this article treats as a non-issue the fact that two guys met via a TV chatroom and then checked in at an apartelle. Reading between the lines, it’s quite obvious that the man whose vehicle was stolen is PLU—there’s very little other likely explanation—and the the text mate/carnapper is a tripper of some sort.

One can hope that the complainant is out in the office or it’d be hard to explain to his company why the car got stolen. I guess the moral of the story is to always be careful whenever you are meeting with someone (yes, that tired old cliché). But more importantly, don’t use company-issued stuff on occasions not related to your work!

Outing My Father

My father and I were extremely close. Sometimes, even my high school classmates would express envy at our closeness. I would tell my dad everything, and I was more close to him than my mother.

No one would have guessed that he is gay. He works for an IT company as a consultant for foreign transactions and though it is not as macho as say, a position in the military or in an architectural or engineering firm, his work reflects himself—highly organized, quick to respond to changes and find solution to problems.

Stories like this should not be anymore surprising, but I still can’t help but be fascinated about married men leading double lives. What interesting in this case is that the wife knows that her husband is gay and that she consents to it, which I guess makes her a martyr of sorts. I find it heartening to see that the daughter has adjusted to her dad’s sexuality after the initial shock. Now what I’m left wondering is if the brother knows and also whether the dad knows that his daughter knows or not.

I personally can’t inflict such kind of emotional damage on a woman and so I will definitely not get married to the opposite sex. (Well, marriage is possible if the woman is aware of my sexuality and consents to see the marriage as an arrangement of some kind, but that kind of thinking leads to a whole lot of complications that I don’t want to think about.)

Anyway, I’m quite intrigued by the fact that the daughter had to mention that her dad is a gym buff who spends a couple of hours or so in the gym after work. I’m now fantasizing that the father falls under the DILF category. Hehehehe. :-)

Jun 14, 2009

Discreetionary: Fitness Feast

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Fitness Feast

Fitness Feast [FIT·nes FEEST] noun 1. Alternate name for the Fitness First chain of gyms. etymology: from the fact that Fitness First is the cruisiest gym chain in Metro Manila.

I've elaborated in a previous post that Fitness First is the best gym if cruisiness is the only criterion. And this is pertinent since after all, gym is the gay church. Thus we have this alternate name for FF (which I got from CC) due to the many carnal opportunities that is possible here. I've visited FF a few times but I have yet to enjoy the feast. :-)

Jun 13, 2009

Featured website: Manila Gay Guide

4 comments.

I try to provide nice guide-articles here in Discreet Manila (like my series of posts on bathhouses) but I can’t cover everything Metro Manila has to offer. So I’m quite happy to point you to other places on the Net where you can find more information. One of the more informative blogs I’ve come across last year is the Manila Gay Guide.

Ignoring the fact that the blog’s title is a ripoff of MGG’s old slogan, the site contains plenty of articles to help you enjoy the Manila PLU scene. Some choice articles is this one detailing how gay massage parlors operate, and this blog entry providing a nice introduction into popular types of cruising venues in the metro. I think the specialty of Manila Gay Guide is the massage parlor scene. Fully more than half of the posts are about individual parlors or the industry in general.

While the site’s last post was way back in March, I think that the site is still useful in the information it provides. Then again, the gay massage parlor industry here in Metro Manila is very volatile so it’s likely that the information on individual spas would be outdated by now. But, I think there is a market for such information so I encourage anyone to take the baton and start their own “Manila Gay Guide” blog. :-)

Jun 12, 2009

Aki Sato: “I look more Filipino than Japanese or Brazilian”

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I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Philippine Independence Day than by pointing you to this recent article on Inquirer.net where Japanese-Brazilian model Akihiro Sato basically professes his love for the Philippines.

The way Japanese-Brazilian model Akihiro Sato put it, he’s as Pinoy as adobo.

“I look more Filipino than Japanese or Brazilian,” he said of his affinity to the Philippines, adding that he felt instantly at home here.

“I was supposed to live in Thailand, but after spending my vacation here, I decided to stay,” he recalled.

When asked if he is enjoying it here in the Philippines, Aki replied, “Sobra. Maraming kaibigan dito. Magaganda mga babae dito.” Yes, he answered in Tagalog. It can be recalled that Akihiro had enrolled in Tagalog tutorials from U.P. to learn the vernacular; proof that he’s here for the long haul. And we don’t mind! We can’t get enough of him, right guys? :-) By the way, he said his favorite Pinoy dishes are adobo and tapa. Well, we certainly want his tapa. Hehehehe.