ABOVE: GARÇON® Underwear in action.

BELOW: Keep reading for a gay marriage proposal, a surprise pro-abortion rights decision from SCOTUS, tasty Chick-Feel-Gay and more ...

(Design by Anthony Coombs, image via Boy Culture LLC)

Today, my second novel — Blind Items: A (Love) Story — is published in a new edition, available for the first time in 20 years!

Please check it out if you haven't.

It's a pop culture explosion and a '90s period piece, a gay romance with (I hope) brains and plenty of nostalgia. 

Let me know if you buy and read it!

Do judge this book by its cover. (Image via St. Martin's Press)

I have a hard time turning the page on things.

The hardest for me is ephemera, various types of which I collect religiously — beefcake photography and clippings, advertising, Madonna magazines and ... books.

I'm a writer, and most of my career has involved some form of publishing, first book publishing (I worked for a rare female literary agent, who was equal parts bohemian and John Bircher; and for St. Martin's Press as an editorial assistant), then news (Reuters, ever so briefly), then porn (when the owner of Mavety Media scoffed at my suggestion he digitize his millions of slides because men would never adapt to jerking off at a computer), then teen entertainment (I founded a pinup mag), then blogging. Through it all, I've published and self-published my own books, too.

In spite of that, I have found less and less time to read over the years, have perhaps even developed — against my will — an aversion to reading anything too long, like a kid seeing a fascinating-looking YouTube video then clicking away upon realizing the length is 8 minutes-plus. In the past few years, I've read scandalously few books, even though I've tried. Does leaving them, half-read, displayed prominently on the little table by my bed count as reading them?

I tried Andrew Sean Greer's orgiastically praised Less, but wanted more.

I didn't get to see Madonna on the street, but I do now own that signage, inset. I guess this is a good example of why collecting ephemera has so much power — it's a substitute for, or reinforcement of, memories.

 

Thirty-two years ago today, on May 3, 1988, Madonna made her Broadway debut as David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow officially opened. Jennifer Grey, Billy Joel, Jennifer Beals and others showed up that night, and such luminaries as Jackie Onassis watched during the run.

 

 

The play received solid reviews (it was Tony-nominated for Best Play and Best Direction of a Play, and the late Ron Silver won the Tony for Best Actor), but Madonna was mostly panned. Frank Rich, in an outlier New York Times, review, controversially wrote:

 

Although her role is the smallest, Madonna is the axis on which the play turns —  an enigma within an enigma, in the manner of the Lindsay Crouse heroine in House of Games. It's a relief to report that this rock star's performance is safely removed from her own Hollywood persona. Madonna serves Mr. Mamet's play much as she did the Susan Seidelman film Desperately Seeking Susan, with intelligent, scrupulously disciplined comic acting. She delivers the shocking transitions essential to the action and needs only more confidence to relax a bit and fully command her speaking voice.

 

I made my first trip to NYC in order to see my idol late in the run of Speed-the-Plow, even though money was hard to come by. With $110 in my pocket, I landed in a thunderstorm on August 25, 1988, and told my cab driver, “Take me to the — “ well, to my friend's apartment building. Cost $18.

 

 

I saw Madonna & Co. on the day before the original cast ended its run. Imagine having so much invested in the belief that Madonna, who had loudly proclaimed she was over the play by then, would show up for her second to last matinee! But she did.

At least, follow me?

If you're into hot guys, please come follow HERE.

If you like my Madonna content, please come follow HERE.

If you like my blasts from the past, please come follow HERE and visit Gr8erDays.com.

I'm also on Twitter and Facebook.

Most-shared post I ever wrote was my list of great gay-porn stars. That was six years ago. Now, a full-fledged update — shares and input appreciated: 225 Greatest Gay-Porn Stars: https://t.co/Ytl1tcIslN

— Boy Culture Blog (@mattrett) July 16, 2019

I went to this and my mom was PISSED that I was in Michigan (from Chicago, where I was attending college) and didn't tell her/come home to Flushing.

I'm in here! I'm in the Madonna's Cat tee, which I've seen selling for $100s on eBay. Mine, of course, rotted at the pits 25 years ago.

(Image by Matthew Rettenmund)

ABOVE: Puppy love.

BELOW: Zambia slams pro-gay ambassador, Touch Our Junk getting gentrified, New Year's Cockin' Eve and more ...