May 31, 2010

The hot older men of Here Comes The Bride

9 comments.

I finally saw Here Comes The Bride last weekend and it was really, really funny. I also haven’t seen a movie audience react as much for quite a while. (The two most reactive scenes were when Sweet Lapus’ character was making passionate love to the maid of honor and when Tom Rodriguez and Eugene Domingo were trying to kiss.) I haven’t seen Kimi Dora yet so I can’t compare, but I definitely left the theater with a smile on my face. :-)

There was definitely some nice eye candy in the film, like the lean and hot body of PBB’s Tom Rodriguez (aka Tom Mott). (I’ve had a minor crush on him ever since he first appeared on Pinoy Big Brother.) The groomsmen were also pretty hot as well and not to mention the male nurses near the film’s end. But what really captured my attention were two of the older actors: Neil Ryan Sese and Bart Guingona. Both are accomplished theater actors, by the way.

I’ve said before that I have this thing for men with shaved heads or a semikal haircut and Bart Guingona (portraying the uncle of Tom’s character) definitely fits my bill. Especially when he was shown wearing tight-fitting shirts that highlighted his big arms.

I’ve had a crush on Neil Ryan Sese (who portrayed the dad of the spoiled ring-bearer) ever since I’ve seen him perform on stage back in college. I very much prefer him sporting a circle beard, but he’s still quite handsome even when clean-shaven.

So, am I the only one who noticed these two mature men in the movie? I’d love to know if there are other people who look and then look past the bevy of young men and also appreciate the sexy older guys. :-)

May 19, 2010

Naughty in Bed

15 comments.

What’s the naughtiest or wildest thing you’ve ever done or experienced in Bed (the gay dance club, that is)? (And I’m referring to things that doesn’t involve getting intoxicated or wasted.) I’m quite sure several of my readers have done torrid kissing or even getting groped or have groped someone else inside his pants while partying in the club, but I’m looking for naughtier things than that. For example, one guy I met before in Bed disclosed to me that he once got head while inside the club before. The guy who gave him a good mouth job just got down on him in a corner and did his thing while a friend of the one who went down acted as the lookout.

Well, on my part, I can think of a couple. Hehehe. One of these two happened in late 2007. I was hanging out near the CR on the ground floor (and this was back before the management semi-enclosed that area) and noticed this cute semikal guy. He was checking me out too and it was not long before we found ourselves in each other’s arms, kissing like crazy. He eventually started groping me and then later unzipped my jeans and took it out. I wasn’t alarmed or got conscious because the place was dark enough that people didn’t notice what was happening. But, he apparently wasn’t satisfied with just stroking me because after a while, he went down and took me in his mouth and started sucking! Try to imagine the feeling of shock, alarm, and pleasure all mixed together. That was what I felt at that time. And as much as I wanted it to continue, I had to motion for him to get up because two guys started looking our way and I really didn’t want us to be reprimanded or get booted out of the club. Of course, we both didn’t want to leave ourselves hanging so the oral activity continued later in the car while the happy ending occurred much, much later in his house. Hehehe.

The second story I will share took place way, way back in 2005, back when Bed was in its original hole-in-the-wall and cramped size. There were these two quite good-looking guys who were regular patrons of the club (and both were VIP if I remember correctly). One time I was in Bed drinking my beer when I noticed one of them staring at me across the bar. His friend also sneaked glances at me so I was sure they were both interested. But nothing came of it that night because I was too torpe. :-P

The next time I was in Bed. The guy who was staring at me eventually approached me and introduced himself. After talking for a bit and stealing kisses from each other, we went to the bar where he introduced me to his friend who also kissed me. After chit-chatting for a bit, they then took me up to the second floor and out the club’s exit. The first guy then brought me up the stairs towards the roof and while sitting on the steps he proceeded to make out with me. The friend soon joined after and we had an unforgettable threesome on the stairway just outside Bed.

(I learned much, much later after that these two were a couple in an open relationship and that they had this habit of trying to get good-looking guys in Bed into bed with them. I was told by no less than two different people that I should not have succumbed to their advances. As one of them said, “Those guys are so full of themselves, trying to bag every good-looking guy in this bar. It doesn’t help to feed their ego.” Oh well.)

So, anyway, those were my two naughtiest experiences at Bed. Have you experienced something like that? I’d love to hear your stories. :-)

May 15, 2010

So did you vote for Ang Ladlad?

7 comments.

I did and I hope you did too!

Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that Ang Ladlad will get a congressional seat this year. Based on unofficial vote tallies, Ang Ladlad only got around 106,000 votes, placing the party in the 60s ranking (though this is much, much better than majority of the other parties). Ang Ladlad needs around a total of 150,000 votes to place it in the top 50 parties and thus giving it a very strong chance of getting one seat.

Still, it’s not bad. Ang Ladlad is now on the ballot and has been given equal rights to participate in the Party-list election. I’m sure the party is now planning ahead to get more votes in the 2013 election. My opinion is that Ang Ladlad needs more visibility despite getting plenty of news coverage.

That said, I’m actually quite happy with the results in my clustered precinct (see the image below). I checked out the breakdown of results at COMELEC’s election website and found out that if the national results reflected my clustered precinct’s voting record, then Ang Ladlad would be getting 2 seats in Congress! :-) How cool is that? (I wonder who those other 17 people who voted for Ang Ladlad were? I hope one of them was the cute guy I saw at the polling place. Hehehe.)

May 11, 2010

Hunky men in Glee’s “Physical” music video

5 comments.

Let’s leave the election coverage for a while and ogle at hunky men first. I’m sure many of my readers are gleeks and I was wondering how many of you have seen the really delicious recreation of Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical” music video in last week’s episode “Bad Reputation”? I thought I’d only have to settle for Mark Salling’s (Puck) shirtless scenes for my ogle-quota in Glee, and so it was a real delight seeing lots of shirtless muscular men with ripped abs in the recreated music video. :-) Go check it out!

I had not seen the original 1981 music video before the episode and I got curious how much of it was recreated, so I watched the original on YouTube. Unlike Madonna’s recreated “Vogue” music video two episodes back, which was an almost perfect frame-by-frame adaptation of the original, the Glee-fied “Physical” clip only copied the setting and general theme of physical fitness (plus some early scenes). Well, I like this new version better since they ditched the obese men found in the old video and gave us lots of hunks! Hehehe. Unfortunately, they also ditched the homosexual ending in the 1981 video. Too bad.

May 9, 2010

I’m voting for Ang Ladlad and so should you

4 comments.

Ang Ladlad for Party List #89

Being a member of the LGBT community means being part of a minority group—one that this heavily marginalized and discriminated against in this relatively conservative society of ours. So there is really no hesitation on my part at all in voting for Ang Ladlad as my party list in tomorrow’s national election. Without Ang Ladlad, the party-list system is just an abstract political exercise for me that doesn’t seem relevant at all. Now that Ang Ladlad has been given the party-list accreditation, by no less than the Supreme Court, I can now genuinely give my vote to an organization that indeed represents me! No more abstaining or voting anymore to some faceless, generic party-list entities who may or may not be dummy orgs for less scrupulous political parties. And since the ballot is a confidential document (in order to thwart vote buying), nobody you don’t want to know would know you voted for Ang Ladlad.

So, please vote for Ang Ladlad! They are #89 on the ballot and deserve our support much more than any other party-list org out there. Itaguyod ang pantay-pantay na karapatan para sa lahat ng tao!

May 8, 2010

Sundays at bathhouses

16 comments.

One thing I’ve noticed is that Sundays seem to be the default bathhouse day for many gay men here in Metro Manila. More often than not, there would be more people than normal in these bathhouses on Sunday nights. This is just my impression and I could be wrong. After all, I don’t go to the bathhouse every day of the week! Hehehe.

This observation is particularly true during long weekends where the Monday is a holiday, as is the case during this weekend and the last. I was at a bathhouse last Sunday and the place was filled with men! That night was definitely the most packed I’ve seen of that bathhouse ever. I’m expecting that this Sunday night will also be quite busy as well. I don’t think the election liquor ban will have any effect, but who knows?

I don’t have the explanation why Sundays are very busy days for these gay venues but one reason I can think of is that weeknights are inconvenient for most while Friday nights and Saturday nights are “regular” gimik nights meant for movies, drinking, and clubbing.

To guys who go to bathhouses, do you agree with my observation? Or is there a busier night in your opinion?

May 7, 2010

Revisiting Sanctum

11 comments.

On this day 2 years ago, the erstwhile gay place Sanctum was raided by the NBI at the instigation of GMA Network’s Imbestigador. This directly resulted to the shutting down of Sanctum and the imprisonment of its owner. As far as I know, he is still in jail. I wrote a three-part article series about this raid last year (parts: one, two, three) and I suggest that you read it to get more familiar with the topic before continuing with this post.

For posterity, I’ve decided to write everything I can remember about Sanctum. I’ve visited the place two times and it was just fortunate that I wasn’t there that fateful night it got raided. The first time was on one of their regular nights (when there was no special event) and the second visit was during a night when they had a torohan (live sex show). I was intending to write about the place way, way before as a sort of a guide—similar to what I’ve been doing with bathhouses—but the raid happened and the idea was scrapped.

On hindsight, I wasn’t at all surprised that the place got raided. The first time I went there I noticed that there weren’t any business licenses but the place operated like other bathhouses—complete with registration, membership cards, and safety-keeping of valuables. The excuse I’ve heard for not being a registered business was that this was a private place and that they just ask patrons to help chip in the expenses. It was an extremely flimsy reason since the chipping-in was mandatory and had set rates.

Background

Before Sanctum was established there was Manjobs. This was an exclusive group of men who organized O parties in the Quezon City area. They usually rented a hotel room in Cubao and invited and screened participants through online social networks such as Guys4Men. I must note that I’ve never been to any of their O parties (or anybody else’s O party for that matter).

Then sometime in late 2007, Sanctum came into the gay scene. I wasn’t initially aware of the connection between this new gay place and Manjobs but I pieced it together when I received text messages from Manjobs advertising for O parties at a private residence in Cubao, which turned out to be the same address as Sanctum’s (and it seems they got my number from my Sanctum registration). In short, it appears that instead of renting out hotel rooms, the people behind Manjobs decided to get a permanent place instead.

A blue bar is born

It would have probably been fine had Manjobs just stuck to organizing O parties at this house, but somebody had the brilliant idea of turning it into a PLU hangout without bothering to register as a legal business. The private residence became a discreet blue bar and it occasionally had shows featuring macho dancers and even live sex acts. For these shows, they sometimes hired men that do this for a living, but there were some guys who opted to do this for kicks while getting paid as well.

The house’s veranda was turned into a reception counter while the living room became the show area. The dining area became a bar where they sold alcoholic beverages and some food (complete with laminated menus). The bedrooms were converted into a video room (where M2M porn is shown), a dark maze area, and a dark room with a square bed. Sanctum basically had the elements of a gay bar, bathhouse, and blue bar all in one! I still primarily consider it as a blue bar since the shows happen occasionally, and unlike bathhouses, you do not have to remove your clothes and explore the place wrapped in a towel.

Observations and experiences

As a place to get laid, Sanctum wasn’t much. No condoms were provided and you can’t take a shower if you wanted to. The dark maze and the dark room were really dark and you usually had to grope your way around at least until your eyes got adjusted. The maze had nooks and crannies and some glory holes, while lying on the bed in the dark room is a sure way to get yourself fondled. The M2M porn being shown in the video room was often boring so guys usually stayed there just to kill time. What I really liked was browsing through the foreign gay magazines that they had scattered in the living room.

The live sex show that I saw was quite hot. They had three guys doing a threesome with two top guys and a bottom. Much, much later, I was able to talk to one of them and he told me that they had a hard time since the bottom guy was doing the show for the first time and was so nervous. I also learned that they get paid to do those shows. Well, the guy I was talking to was the sexiest of the three and we eventually made out for a bit in the living room. I guess if I had been willing, we would’ve done another live show then and there. :-)

I wouldn’t say that I miss the place. Sure, going there was a different sort of fun, but I couldn’t shake away the feeling that the whole thing was illicit. Yet, the blue bar concept intrigued me enough that it seems a shame that it got shut down (although deservedly so). I had never been to the old blue bars like Cine Cafe, Mr. Piggy’s or Cine Musika, so Sanctum was definitely my first foray into such venues. These types of bars seem to fill a niche that gay clubs like Bed or bathhouses couldn’t fill in terms of hooking up with fellow patrons.

Anyway, if you want another perspective on visiting Sanctum, then this article by another blogger is an interesting read.

May 5, 2010

Sizzling hot!

8 comments.

I find it quite amusing that even though the weather feels like a sauna with all the heat and humidity, PLU guys will still flock to the saunas and steam rooms of gyms and spas everywhere. Wala lang. :-)

May 4, 2010

Things that make you go “awww!”

5 comments.

I’ve known of the site Gives Me Hope for quite a while now. Nicknamed GMH, it’s basically a site collecting very short anecdotes of endearing stories (chicken-soup-for-the-soul style) all ending with “GMH.” If you’re feeling down and want a pick-upper, then reading this site is sure to bring back the optimist in you.

I was reading this site again and I came across a few LGBT-themed entries that I can’t help but share.

Today, I proposed to my girlfriend of four years in a nice restaurant. When she said yes, the entire restaurant stood up and applauded.

We’re both women.

Understanding of true love GMH. (#24788)

Today, a boy came into our English class to ask his significant other to Prom in a cute, creative manner.

After receiving a yes, the boy kissed my classmate’s cheek, and the room erupted in applause.

They’re both boys.

Our tolerance, and their courage, GMH. (#54306)

Today, my friend told her father she was gay.

He turned and left silently, and she cried, thinking he wouldn’t accept her. About an hour later, he came back with a gay pride flag and a stuffed animal dolphin and said, “Did you know 40% of the dolphin population is gay?”

Her dad GMH. (#45719)

Stories like these GMH. :-)


P.S. If schadenfreude is more your thing, then GMH’s sister site Fuck My Life or FML, would be right up your alley.

May 3, 2010

D’Survivors has dethroned Hugot as the worst indie movie I’ve ever seen

3 comments.

Get a critically-acclaimed director/writer (Daybreak, Adela, Batanes, Tambolista, and Imoral), add several comedians, throw in tons of male eye candy, and you get one hell of an adventure-comedy, right? Wrong. With all of those really good things going for this latest indie, it’s extremely perplexing how utterly crap D’Survivors is. I thought nothing could possibly top Hugot in sheer stupidity. But I guess there’s always something that will prove Einstein’s supposed quotation: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.”

The fact that a movie like D’Survivors was ever made shows how sorry the state of the Filipino indie film industry is. At least with Hugot there was some recognizable attempt at being artistic and socially-relevant (even if the attempt flopped). But D’Survivors was absolutely pointless. And there wasn’t even enough bared skin on-screen to appease the disappointed gay people hoodwinked into watching this crap. The movie tried to be campy, but Temptation Island this is not. And even if this film was released direct to home video, I still wouldn’t recommend buying it.

It’s crap. Period. I won’t waste any more words deploring this trash so I’ll leave you with this negative review by ClickTheCity’s resident film critic and this hilarious movie reaction from Jessica Zafra. Trust me, Jessica’s prose is much more entertaining than D’Survivors’ pathetic excuse for a film.