You need a little (Boy) Culture!

It blows my mind to realize that Boy Culture is now eight years old. I can still remember the joy I felt when I figured out how to post, how to upload an image and how to embed a video. I remember every time a post blew up, bringing in hits and new viewers. I remember the longtime commenters, the trolls, the spam and the never-ending (and validating!) pitches and free tickets and photographers' snaps of half- or all-naked male models. 

Shooting for my blog has never been a drag.

I've used Boy Culture to express myself, to help express others and to connect to people internationally.

I've also used it to show off my humor (both high and low), to flaunt my obsessions, to reality-test my sexual diversions and perversions, to laud the art I love, to lash out against the enemies of gay people and to broadcast my admiration for Madonna.

I want to thank you all for having read this blog over the years. It's a very hard thing to maintain, and it will not be maintained forever. But each time I get some positive (or even just meaningful) feedback, each time my posts are shared on social media, each time something I've written elicits a response, it keeps me going that much longer.

Madonna's stepmother was not impressed.

Thank you. Please enjoy my 100 favorite posts, please let me know if you're reading any old ones for the first time and are liking them and, most of all, please share this entire post far and wide to help get my work out there.

My first "Guydar" post from 2008.

As always, you can find me on Facebook (personal and blog), Twitter, Instagram and YouTube (plus, here are my YouTube greatest hits). 

ALL ORANGE TITLES ARE HOTLINKS.

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#100

TOTALLY RANDOM LISTS (2011—2013)

I've gotten way into lists. Way. You'll find more of my lists higher up on, uh, this particular list. But the ones that are just completely random go here because I worked my ass off on them, because I love them and because—judging from Quantcast data—you like 'em, too.

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My favorite Duran Duran member.

POP QUIZ: VIDEOS THAT KILLED (2011)

Totally awesome '80s! Take this visual quiz to see how many classic music videos you can ID.

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I wish sex tapes had existed in the '50s.

UNDER THE GAYDAR: 10 PEOPLE YOU MAY OR MAY NOT REALIZE WERE OR ARE QUEER (2012)

I got lots of feedback on this, mainly because nobody realized Nell Carter was with a woman at the time of her death.

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I would've chipped in to get this one made.

WOULDA COULDA SHOULDA: 5 INCREDIBLE MOVIES THAT NEVER HAPPENED (2013)

I'm shamless for including Leda & Swan, a movie that was a bomb without ever even being made.

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Great Scott!

IN & OUT: 25 STARS' FIRST & LAST PERFORMANCES IN FILM & ON TV (2013)

Being obsessed with nostalgia and with movies, this was fun—but so very taxing—to compile. I loved the randomness of it.

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I hate that music has been sleeveless for 20 years.

20 7" SINGLE SLEEVES FROM THE '80S THAT BELONG IN A GALLERY (2013)

Just 20 from my massive collection of 45s. I got rid of my 12" records, but I've kept these guys because they're just too much a part of my childhood.

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Amanda Blake's marriage was a mystery, with both spouses dying of AIDS.

GAY MARRIAGE: CELEBRITIES WHO MARRIED LGBT SPOUSES (2013)

It might've been more efficient to make a list of famous straight people who managed to marry other full-on heteros.

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The infamous Gary Coleman/Mark Messier two-shot seen 'round the world.

ODD COUPLES: 19 UNUSUAL CELEBRITY PAIRS (2013)

This post encapsulates my outlook on pop culture and my desire to twist it and play with it...except in this case, its participants are already doing the dirty work.

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Haunted House: The family home that haunted Jane and Bill's final years.

#99

A FIGHT AT THE MUSEUM (2007)

My late mentor's husband struggles to give away his family home.

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#98

POLITICS (2005—2013)

I'm a political person and I blog about it a lot. Some of the entries stand up over time, but many are so of the moment it was hard to pull the ones I like best.

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Where Kevin James goes, (unintentional!!!) homophobia follows.

TRUNZO IS DUNZO (2007)

Star Magazine implying gay people aren't quite right? Not normal! This took off on several blogs and GLAAD got an apology from Trunzo over it. Some people think it's being "oversensitive," but Jesus...how much clearer is "Man to man" with a huge "NOT" (NORMAL) stamped over it?

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If McCain calls, I'm not here. 

NEW YORK TO McCAIN: DROP DEAD! (2008)

The time I saw John McCain and showed him exactly how I felt. 

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The Clintons practice some black magic 

WHITE MISCHIEF (2008)

When Bill and Hillary decided to use race in the race for the White House.

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Crist for the mill 

FLORIDA'S GOVERNOR ENGAYGED: DOES THIS COUNT AS "GAY MARRIAGE?" (2008)

Charlie Crist is gay. Really, really gay.

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There's always 2016... 

HOW DO I LOVE THEE? LET ME COUNT THE GAYS... (2008)

The gay affair with Hillary Clinton.

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Hail, Mary, full of disgrace

 SARAH PALIN = SPIRO AGNEW + HARRIET MIERS (2008)

Aw, she'll never last...

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Whoopi-tee-doo & Kate, too! 

THE MARRYING KIND (2008)

That fabulously spontaneous anti-Prop 8 march in NYC.

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"Fierce advocate" was once a taunt, and is now just true.

WITH US OR AGAINST US (2009)

A post from when the Obama Administration was considered almost openly hostile toward gay-rights advocates. I believe he's turned that impression around.

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A good sign

IT GOT BETTER (2010)

The one where President Obama happily signed DADT out of existence.

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As she lays her career down to sleep...

DAMN, I WISH SHE WOULDN'T DO THISI (2011)

Sopie B. Hawkins GOesProud. I wish she'd GOHome.

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I live for death!

#97

OBITUARIES (2009—2012)

I tend to write about almost every celebrity death I hear about, specializing in anyone from the Golden Era. These are two that really blew me away. You, too?

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Very hazardous duties

AND JILL CAME TUMBLING AFTER (2009)

The death of Farrah Fawcett, a woman whose nips decorated my walls before I realized I had no use for them.

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End credits

REFLECTIONS IN A VIOLET EYE: ELIZABETH TAYLOR DIES AT 79 (2011)

The biggest living star fades out. It's still hard to believe she isn't around anymore.

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She worked hard for the money.

LAST DANCE: DONNA SUMMER DIES AT 63 (2012)

I'd spent a long time hating Donna over her alleged anti-gay comments, but that rumor isn't the whole story on her life.

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Good egg

MAKES SAD FACE, MOVES LIPS, TYPE APPEARS ON PANEL: "THE END" (2012)

I was surprised when no major news services noted the death of the last person to have starred in a silent film as an adult, Barbara Kent.

The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus is so not a fashiony type, he tells Men's Fitness (December 2013) that when he was hand-chosen to pose for Prada, he asked, "What's Prada?"

Check out his moody shots (you can hear "Bittersweet Symphony" playing as you eyeball him) from the mag in the gallery above.

 

Football stud Russell Wilson covers Men's Fitness (October 2013). Suddenly, roughness doesn't seem so unnecessary anymore, now does it?

The article begins with a quote from his work-out drill sergeant, barking:

"You want to catch the log in your stomach, never in your chest."

I guess there isn't an exact parallel that makes this dirty, but it sure sounds like something would hesistate to repeat in polite company.

 

Men's Fitness (September 2013) nets tennis ace Novak Djokovic for its cover and for a story on how to power up your diet.

 

In (and on) Men's Fitness (July/August 2013), Hugh Jackman looks fantastic, and talks about how being nice has led to some bad photo-shoot choices:

"I can look back at a couple of photo shoots and say, 'Oh, my God, it's so not me,' where the stylists had brought clothes they wanted me to wear, and I said all right, which is a bit pathetic; but I was way more worried about hurting their feelings."

He keeps it simple this time, as you can see in the gallery above. Best bet when the stylist brings lame outfits: Birthday suit.

A stunning shot of David Miller by Matt Hawthorne for Men's Fitness (July/August 2013).

 

Daytona 500 champ Jimmie Johnson reveals his fitness regimen—and his fit form—to Men's Fitness (May 2013).

Jason Statham covers Men's Fitness (February 2013). In the article, he reveals his big-screen heroes:

"Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood. It's funny, most of my on-screen heroes are sort of the ones of yesteryear. I just thought they had a bit of a laid-back coolness to them."

 

Matthew Fox covers Men's Fitness (November 2012) in a feature entitled "Fox Uncensored." If only that were true, but he does look rock-hard in the photos, especially in the one below from his turn as a villain in the Tyler Perry vehicle Alex Cross.

In the feature, Fox addresses his year of enduring rumors:

"It's been a long, trying year of sitting on my hands on a lot of negative shit said about me, when they're the furthest things from who I am. That I beat a woman in Cleveland when in fact I was assaulted by a man and did nothing but retaliate against him? The 46 years I've been breathing on this planet, I have never hit a woman before. Never have, never will. But I think there's still gonna be a lot of people out there who'll think it's true no matter what the fuck I say."

Tyler Perry must've been dying to go up against this

Dancing with the Stars stud Maksim Chmerkovskiy covers Men's Fitness (April 2012). Nice arms...