Courtesy of Avalon Publishing, this week’s swag prize is Chaos: A Novella and Stories, the new book from Edmund White, revered author of the must-have trilogy for fans of gay literature: A Boy’s Own Story, The Beautiful Room Is Empty, and The Farewell Symphony. And many of you may fondly recall 1977’s The Joy Of Gay Sex, which White coauthored …

Downtown Jersey City as seen from Christopher Street. Jersey City’s skyline has been growing steadily since 9/11, thanks to all the Manhattan companies that bailed. JC is the second-biggest city in the state, behind Newark, with about 240,000 residents. Interestingly, JC has no ethnic majority, all races are represently almost equally.

Bill Maher delivers the definitive (and hilarious) eulogy.

Saturday night I found myself chatting with a guy from Nottingham and a guy from Sydney, when naturally the conversation turned to American imperialism. I jokingly asked a friend nearby, “Quick, name five famous Australians.” He hesitated and I added, “Besides Kylie.” He said, “Oh, shoot. Um…there’s her sister, Danni. Oh, and Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.” I said, “Don’t …

Again, the commenting system on this here website thingy is acting up. I’ve noticed that Haloscan has added a widget that notes how many people are viewing an individual comment box. If that’s the cause of the current issue, there doesn’t seem to be a way to disable that function. Boo.

Calling Bush the “worst president in history” in international relations, Jimmy Carter said yesterday: “We now have endorsed the concept of preemptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that sometime in the future our security …

In an “open letter to the black community” televangelist Rev. Harry Jackson Jr. is calling on African-Americans to oppose the Matthew Shepard Act, the Senate version of the LGBT-inclusive hate crimes bill that recently passed in the House. Jackson: “As a pastor, I am concerned about the potential of being charged with a crime as the result of the actions …

Gas prices are at an all-time high nationwide and when I took this picture a few days ago, I thought NYC probably had much higher prices. Not so much, the national average today stands at $3.20/gallon and in California the average price is $3.40. Still, adjusted for inflation, the 1981 average price of $1.31 would be $3.15 today.

The narrowest house in New York City, at 75 1/2 Bedford Street in Greenwich Village, is just 9.5 feet wide. Former residents of the house include poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, Margaret Mead, John Barrymore, and Cary Grant. The house is 36 feet deep and all three floors are open, without any actual rooms save a second floor bathroom. The …

The Farmboyz and I spent the day down in Soho and the Village, where we scoped out rents, bakeries, and men, in that order. Shifting priorities, eh?

In a move to shed her stodgy image, Sen. Hillary Clinton is asking visitors to her presidential campaign site help her pick her official campaign song. The songs to choose from include Right Here, Right Now – Jesus Jones, Beautiful Day – U2, I’m A Believer – Smash Mouth, and curiously, the old R&B classic, I’ll Take You There by …

“Do we crucify people because they’re a nuisance? Do we go up to them and say, ‘You don’t belong here for being young and loud, and being people of color? It’s life. It changes, and we have to change with it.” – Bob Kohler, 80, a 30-year resident of the West Village, in today’s LA Times article about the continuing …

The South African government has released a list of 17 churches that have had their applications to perform gay marriages approved. The churches are all outside of the major denominations. The Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian and Catholic churches have barred their clergy from performing the ceremonies, which were legalized last November, but some churches are considering leaving their denominations for ones …

A few weeks ago, Joel Derfner, a NYC blogger, author, and composer exchanged a few emails with me about the Westboro Baptist Church’s appropriation of USA For Africa’s famine relief anthem, We Are The World, which the members of Fred Phelps’ clan of crazies had performed on YouTube as “God Hates The World.” Joel was incensed, naturally, and was curious …

NRP has an interesting piece about the “Crate and Barrellization of gay culture” due the “radical shift” of gay life from an “outcast culture” to one in which lesbian couples go to PTA meetings. The piece mentions “diaper dads” being more visible at pride parades than drag queens. Well, not quite, perhaps. But we are in the midst of a …

National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases head Anthony Fauci has released the results of a study which suggests that new HIV drugs from Merck and Roche may “cure” HIV in patients who have very low levels of the virus, provided those patients have already been treated “early and faithfully” with over 7 years of combination drug therapy. Patients are …

The southernmost building on Roosevelt Island is the ghostly shell of New York City’s former Smallpox Hospital, which is lit nightly by the floodlights you can see in the grass, for maximum eerie effect. Just across the East River from the United Nations, it was the first hospital in the nation to treat and quarantine smallpox victims. Smallpox Hospital was …

Get out your barf bags. From today’s column in Front Page: Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners. [snip] Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell. Actually, there was one small item I …

OK, you got me. Another cat post. But this one does have a purpose. Sometime last Saturday it started to seem like Shelley was in heat, showing all the usual signs: yowling, rolling around, being overly affectionate. Impossible for a neutered shelter animal, you say? I checked her records and called the APSCA who confirmed that Shelley was indeed spayed …

Noted atheist and author Christopher Hitchens eviscerated Jerry Falwell’s legacy on CNN last night, calling Falwell an “ugly little charlatan” and a “little toad.” It’s a great clip and Hitchens totally nails my own opinions, but I’m disappointed with Anderson Cooper’s rather dismissive comment at the end of the interview.