Amen Madonna gets credit for this side-by-side

Rita Ora is apparently going to be the new face of Madonna and Lola's Material Girl line.

He shoots, he scores!

West Phillips knows how to shoot a model. (Work Unfriendly)

Teens' sexualities relatively unaffected by porn?

Does Zac Efron in a tight T-shirt affect adult sexuality?

Bette Midler's I'll Eat You Last is a "delectable soufflé."

Key Delaware senator will be voting for marriage equality.

ENDA introduced in Congress.

Ryan Lochte fans turn out to support What Would Ryan Lochte Do?:

I love him, jeah, jeah, jeah! What Would Ryan Lochte Do? airs Sundays @ 10PM on E!

Steven Soderbergh raised on The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T.

Join the Concrete Hero Urban Obstacle Challenge to fight AIDS.

How marriage was won in Rhode Island.

"Have Your (Cup)Cake & Read It, Too! -- The Great Gatsby edition.

Channing Tatum & Joseph Gordon-Levitt remaking Guys & Dolls?

Madonna was "impressive" recording "Like a Prayer."

More of Madonna's so-called "secret project."

From here: Madonna's not-so-secret past wardrobe hits Macy's. All 8 looks.

Haven't collected many items worn by Madonna, but I'd kill for a Keith Haring dress.

I like Madonna as much as the next guy—okay, more—but if this is what Material Girl is selling..yuck. I can't picture Madonna wearing anything like this at any point in her life.

Yes, this is me with Madonna's chair

I met Madonna.

When I type that, it has the cutesy bluntness of "we bought a zoo." But even wilder than purchasing a zoo, I did finally get to meet a woman who has inspired me for three decades.

By "meet," I don't mean in the magazine coverline sense, I mean I met-met her—like, shook her hand, was introduced, sat knee-to-knee with her and conversed.

And frighteningly, it almost never happened.

Madonna's search for the next "Material Girl" just got hilarious with this dryly funny clip featuring the Material Mom and her own li'l Material Girl, Lola. I love their interplay. Madonna almost bursts out laughing when claiming she cares about feelings, and Lola's sardonic replies ("That's debateable..." "In old person world...") are priceless. Also, Madonna found her best angle of the moment, no? Gorgeous, much? After the jump...

Yeah, so Star (August 8, 2011) is so superconcerned that Kelly Osbourne is a potentially bad influence on Madonna's Lola...but where were they when Taylor Momsen was the face of Material Girl???

GREAT picture of Madonna with Lola and Material Girl spokesperson Kelly Osbourne in OK! (July 11, 2011). I realize Kelly O. is a Madonna buff and LGBT rights supporter—kudos—but to read Madonna noting her "edgy, cool" and "unique sense of style" is nonetheless a bit of a horse pill for me. I can't get past the reality TV past and lack of any real there there.

Madonnarama breaks the news—and I mean it that way, too—that Kelly Osbourne is the new face of Material Girl for 2011, replacing Taylor Momsen.

I don't really get using a 26-year-old...I think of Material Girl as being a more junior fashion line. And I'm not much a fan of Osbourne's (or of the Osbournes), though she seems "nice" in a Kevin Costner/Blond Ambition way.

In the first image released, it's almost like they're trying to make her look like Madonna! (Not Lola.)

Well, I guess Osbourne is popular and this will get the line some continued attention.

As of midnight tonight, it will be exactly five years since my first post. It's hard to imagine it's been that long, and a lot's changed—the tone and subject matter are different, how often I post, my limits (no nudity in a couple of years due to ad constraints). I've devoted a crazy amount of time and money and energy to this blog for a very small financial return (you couldn't guess low enough), but it's always rewarding to have this forum with which to express myself, keep my writing ability fluid, perhaps influence a couple of people here and there, share obsessions with strangers (in both senses of the word) and learn new things.

Take That's Howard...can you believe this happened onstage at a pop concert?

Here are some of the posts that were most important to Boy Culture's history. For the uninitiated, some of the oldest ones refer to Boy Culture, the movie made of my novel; I started the blog at the time Boy Culture was being filmed as a way to keep people informed of the progress...and it all snowballed from there.

Subtle

Some of these posts are milestones when it comes to the hits they provided but most are filled with original writing and/or photography and video and are just the posts of which I'm proudest. I hope you'll take some time to click on them and send their links around to others—and some time is what you'll need...

MY ART

Boy-crazy

FROM BOY TO MAN: BC B.C. (2007): The entire history of my novella, novel and movie Boy Culture; might be my ultimate post.

From '07, one of my faves. Old iPhones were better because they were worse.

"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.

GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.

i-i-i (phone)

TriBeCa is for Boy lovers...

BOY ON FILM (2006): An account of the NYC launch party for Boy Culture as it played the TriBeCa Film Fest.

I was left "Reeling" by the experience

FRIENDS AND "FAMILY" (2006): The movie version of Boy Culture hits Chicago.

RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.

Let's call it a draw

DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.

ME

Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life

BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.

I had the Fever for Jon-Erik Hexum

AN OBSESSION IS BORN (2009): One of my best posts about my obsession with...obsession.

Death becomes here

ILLINOIS DEATH TRIP (2007): Ruminations on death while revisiting a past home, and the past.

Life is short and meaningful

PASSING BY (2008): Mourning the loss of a person I only met once.

I was given the red-carpet treatment

HAVEN'T WE MET? (2010): Celebrating my time with someone I've only met once—Madonna.

MORE VIDEOS GOING UP LATER, INCLUDING INSIDE THE PARTY!

My first memory of really being into Madonna would be from around September 1983. I was driving home from playing Dungeons & Dragons at my cousin's in Swartz Creek, listening to Top 40 radio at full blast, and rocking (more like popping) out to Shannon's "Let the Music Play" when "Holiday" came on. My reaction to it was immediate—this was like aural sex, a true popgasm.

Exactly 27 years later, my dream to meet Madonna finally materialized last night at, of all places, Macy's.

Four great chicks: Liz, Nadia (her assistant), Lola & Madonna

Admittedly, the desire to meet an idol is fraught with risk. No less a personage than former recording star and current recording exec Tommy Page has cautioned me about doing such a thing (I told him I'd been a member of his fan club 'cuz I thought he was cute but meeting him was lovely so why not push it?). And it's also a shallow, silly kind of goal in life—or would be, if it were my only one. But nonetheless, it has been a goal and it's now in my rearview and I'm happy to say it went off without a hitch.