God, I hope this isn't followed by Madonna covering "Toxic," but here's Britney Spears chirping "Burning Up." (Rather unconvincingly, I'd say.) I dunno, it's an awfully gritty lyric for the Stock Aiken Waterman-esque production it's got here. (It kinda takes a "Mickey" by Toni Basil turn, too.) It's also hard for me to take seriously someone claiming they have no shame and will do anything...as long as the conservatorship signs off.

She apparently intends to do it on tour, and I suppose the speak-singing arrangement would come in handy.

I'm not a fan of Britney, so...Britney fans? Is this hot or tepid?

Via Perez Hilton: Though her body-modi exploits are, um, a little on the weird side and unlikely to dissuade critics that she's a demonic Illuminati Satan-worshiper, Lady Gaga's new single "Judas" really and truly hits the spot.

It sounds like a potpourri of her past signature hits without sounding like a lazy medley, and is far easier to enjoy on impact than her cool, well-intentioned but less thoughtlessly joyful "Born This Way." "Judas" is to "Bad Romance" as "Deeper and Deeper" is to "Vogue." And who knew we shared an ex-boyfriend? That fucking Judas really got around!

You like the song?

Chris Crocker, the original bullied gay teen, gives a frank and interesting interview to The Six Pack:

"I've had people walk up to me and tell me I'm the reason they get based...I only represent the 1% of the gay community which I happen to represent, which is myself...Just 'cause I can make fun of myself doesn't mean I want anyone to get made fun of."

He also talks about being left behind after almost landing a Logo deal and being iced out by rival Perez Hilton.

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.

I think it's great that Perez Hilton has decided to be kinder and gentler—though I presume not toothless.

I do wish he'd reconsider his promise to stop outing people. Outing is not an act of aggression, assisting people to stay in the closet is an act of repression.

To wit:

"If I know someone is gay and in the closet I might just repeatedly say that person has a very pretty face [laughs]. I’m still going to be me. To me, that’s still being playful and sassy. But I’m not forcing anyone to come out. I’m not outing anyone. And I don’t even know that that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not putting myself in a box or saying 'This is what I’ll do or won’t do.' It’s all going to be case by case, post by post situation. I’m just trying to be more thoughtful."

Of course, there is a difference between speculating about a public person's sexuality or identifying a public person's closeted status and writing "gayface" on pictures of every cute young actor alive; I won't miss the latter.

I wrote in June of 2009 of the "Death of Perez Hilton." I said:

"Perez can try to save himself in a number of ways—for example, he can issue new guidelines for his site that would amount to his being a still critical yet less balls-out version of himself (you can be a critic without taking potshots), re-inventing before he can be remaindered."

I'm sure Lady GaGa was more influential in Perez's decision to chart a new course than I was, but I was right. He has to change to stick around. But even changing doesn't guarantee he'll stick around. Not everyone gets a free pass to re-invent. We'll see how his new incarnation is accepted or not accepted, but I welcome and am interested in it.

Via Perez: Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutherika—also Africa Union Chair—has spoken out against those who speak out in favor of gay rights, and he's dragging kids into the crossfire:

"The role of protecting children is for everyone. I want religious leaders and civil society groups to speak on the rights of children, not a man marrying a man. Donors should stop assisting confuses [sic] people. Why fight for gay rights instead of children's rights?"

Yeah, like, why chew gum when you could walk instead. Why not do both? Why not recognize that a good number of the children you're saving will grow up to be gay?

If you hate Perez, you won't want to watch his brief segment with level-headed Joy Behar. But the salient info gleaned was that the image he linked to was absolutely not of Miley with no underwear and he didn't PhotoShop it (if you've seen his PhotoShopping skills, this isn't hard to believe); Behar has viewed the photo, and while she finds it distasteful and invasive (don't get me started on where we'd have to draw the line in litigating distasteful and invasive—but it's at least a conversation worth having about what is either of those things), she definitely didn't contradict him on these points.

Gee...where are those child-pornography charges that all the "experts" thought were imminent for Perez Hilton? Oh, wait, that's right—there was never a chance.

People (of all sources) is now casually reporting that Howard Price, a Beverly Hills criminal defense attorney, says:

"It seems unlikely Perez would be prosecuted for any criminal act in this case. For this to constitute as child pornography it has to be a photo of actual sexual conduct or a more blatant exhibition of one's private parts for the purpose of sexually stimulating the viewer. Plus, prosecutors aren't going to waste their time trying to go after an isolated event like this. They are more concerned about more serious and widespread cases. If Perez doctored the photograph however, that could be grounds for a civil defamation suit."

He's 100% correct but ha, a civil defamation suit for doctoring a celebrity's photo...that's about as likely as cleaning up that oil spill. Can you really picture Miley Cyrus filing suit over that? No. Already, her response has been to brand it "negativity" and go about her business.

And speaking of "negativity" and "business," perhaps those who hate Perez for being so relentlessly negative—and who don't rationalize that D-Listed (he skewers stars for sport, albeit trés wittily, I like him) or What Would Tyler Durden Do? (a hilarious but taboo-flouting hetero blogger who posted pictures of underage Demi Lovato's underage ass) or the print tabloids are somehow any better—or who at least find it wrong when he's relentlessly negative toward kids, can move on and focus on that aspect.

If you despise Perez Hilton so much you're not open to reason on the subject, skip to another post.

Ball-sack instinct

This Perez Hilton/Miley Vagyrus "scandal" is suuuch bullshit, and the people piling on Perez are embarrassing themselves as they hope against hope that something bad will finally happen to him.

Via Perez: Katy Perry meekly attempts to explain her tongue-clicking response to Lady GaGa's "blasphemy"-laden "Alejandro" video:

"Oh! Well, you know what's funny is that everybody was assuming that I was directing it completely towards her and if I was directing something I would write their '@'. Lately, I've just been seeing, like, some things that are kind of like, I don't know, in my own personal feelings a little bit, like, not something I would do, I guess. Like, you know when...mmm...Madonna was on a cross and, uh, like sometimes my boyfriend will say things that are a little bit...mmm...for me, like, for where I come from...it's hard for me to say that because sometimes I'm a very hypocritical person. Everybody's like, 'How do you say that and you kissed a girl?' And I was like, well, I think sometimes—most of the time, you can disagree or agree—spirituality and sexuality are two separate things and then when you decide to, like, put them into the same subject...it gets interesting. For some people."

She then goes on to say she's one of the biggest GaGa (and Madonna and Brand) fans despite have a different viewpoint on religion. Come on, Katy, you were referring only to GaGa—Madonna was hanging on a cross almost four years ago!)