Into the Blue - Official Video

Love it, Kylie!
I can't wait to hear the full album!

Kylie and Ateneo

Hehehe... Into the BLUE!!!
Love it as always, Kylie.

Limpido

More Kylie is always good.
Limpido by Laura Pausini, featuring Kylie.

Love it!

Tonight, be my Supernova

Kylie.
Forever fabulous.
Always copied.

Kylie does it again!

Fast, time is ticking oh so fast
The sound is running quick right through our hands
Beat, feel the rhythm in my heartbeat
Why don't you move your body to my body
Before we disappear
Tell me now, whop
Do you wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
I wanna, wanna dance like it was the last dance of my life
I wanna woo, wanna, wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
Do you wanna, wanna dance, like it was the last dance
Wait, no, please don't makes me wait
When walls are shaking, ground feels like it might break
It's not the end of the world
It's just the start of me and you, yeah
So let's just take the moment
Boy let's move
Drive.
Tell me now, whop

Do you wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
I wanna, wanna dance like it was the last dance of my life
I wanna whop, wanna, wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
Do you wanna, wanna dance, like it was the last dance
We're on a timebomb, you might not last long
So let's just do it right now, do it come on
We're on a timebomb, before the night's gone
Let's just do it right now, do it come on
Wait, please don't make me wait
Wait, please don't make me wait
Tell me now, whop
Do you wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
I wanna, wanna dance like it was the last dance of my life
I wanna woo, wanna, wanna, wanna, wanna, whop
Do you wanna, wanna dance, like it was the last dance
We're on a timebomb, you might not last long
So let's just do it right now, do it come on
We're on a timebomb, before the night's gone
Let's just do it right now, do it come on

---

And behind the scenes:

[nsfw] The Boys of Aphrodite

Kylie is always surrounded by beautiful wonderful men.
Check them out here.



And when you're done, do check out the nice pics posted in WickedGayBlog, which was the very blog that alerted me to the existence of this.

Merry Christmas again to you all from Blame it on the Rain, Bro!

Here's a little bit of Kylie for you for this Holiday!

Santa Baby... Fabulous Christmas to you all!

Thank you Kylie for showing us we can love and be loved.
Have a fabulous Christmas, you all!

Thank you, Kylie

Til you visit Manila again.

*hugs*

The B!tch*s battle for a Gay Icon Status

I feel like there are so many artists who are struggling to be "recognized" as "THE" gay icon for new era in fag-friendly music.   While many of them can ALREADY be considered gay icons in their own way, there seems to be this desperate push marketing-wise to be "publicly acknowledged" as one.

I still believe in you, Gaga.

Lady Gaga made hyper-time hype with the lyrics of her often-compared-to-Madonna's-Express-Yourself song, "Born This Way" when it contained lyrics that were clearly a shout out to gay people everywhere.   Lines such as "Don't be a drag, just be a queen" and "No matter gay, straight, or bi,
Lesbian, transgendered life" were clearly a shout-out for people to see that this song was meant to be a new gay anthem.  While she may have never said it was meant to be one, her best buddy Elton John has and clearly the press has run away with that idea.  

Then she came out with her video:

Yes.  You've seen the video and you're probably wondering what the fuck was that all about.  Personally, I feel shafted.  Lady Gaga was genius when she did Poker Face and Bad Romance.   She was trendsetting when she made us love Paparazzi.  She slipped slightly backwards with Alejandro (which clearly was more Madonna than Gaga) but regained her footing with Telephone.  But this?  Heavenly Lord, she makes a song that sounds too much like Madonna, then makes a video that outright steals from David Bowie and Marilyn Manson and plays into the hands of all who want to make us think she's part of the Illuminati.  I just shook my head and told myself, Lady Gaga will survive this for sure.  But man, she wasted a chance to really make a mark that was truly hers.

Exactly what image are you supposed to portray anyway?

P!nk had her own torch-song to throw out there.  As I mentioned in a previous blog post, P!nk really succeeded in making a catchy dance-able tune.  The beat is very memorable and can easily weave into one's head when one ain't careful and the play with words is quite intriguing to say the least.  But what the lyrics shouts of is an ironic self-empowering through self-degradation (aka taking over the word) similar to how blacks can use the "n" word without it being so negatively degrading.  P!nk wants us to proudly think we are freaks who are just fine being "all on our own."  Confusing lyrics since the video shows a more "we stand together" image that I personally feel more favored towards.   So, P!nk, that was close but not quite what it could have been.

The ONLY innovative scene in her latest video.

Then there's Britney whose comeback is composed of a series of nicely dance floor dangerous tracks with a music video far more obsessed with harking the sponsors she has and pushing so desperately the idea she is THE NEW GAY ICON.  I do not recall when else did she ever have oh so obviously gay dancers with her before.  Her songs bring back the music we love from Britney (something Lady Gaga might want to learn to do very soon) but her styling seems just wrong considering how much weight she has still to work off the image she so desperately wants to sell.    And just in case you didn't get it, the die-hard fans have made a push to make her THE GAY ICON is shown in supposed surveys that were made to declare her as such.  Understandably, Britney had such a moment before.   I don't blame her for so wanting to be that again.   I wish her a lot of luck though.

Katy Perry knows how to have fun without losing who she is.

If there's one musician who has very neatly established herself as a gay icon without really trying, that would be Katy Perry.  She is beautiful without forcing it.  She is fun without being crass.  She is sassy and stylish without being schizophrenic.  And best yet, she has a song that has both lyrics and a visual message that are uplifting to anyone who has ever been discriminated against.  Her song Firework is such a positive celebration that it can apply to cancer survivors, people who have been targets of discrimination due to gender or race, and even people who simply feel they do not fit in.  The song isn't about needing to fight back or spitting at the face of other people for not being accepted.  It is about knowing deep inside of each one of us is a light that deserves to shine.



Her earlier songs such as "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot/Cold" were dance hits that nicely jived with the rainbow dance floor.  Her newer songs such as "California Girls" and "Teenage Dream" are finding audiences in both straight and gay crowds that are celebrating them together.  Katy Perry definitely has the upper hand now in becoming the next Gay Icon.  I only wonder if she can keep it up.

Yes dear.  Been that many years and you are still fabulous!

Maybe someday, among these a true Gay Icon shall emerge.  Someone who can actually have the right to be compared to Kylie who has for year after year after year remained fabulous and flirty and uplifting without effort.  Considering everything that has happened both to her and to the music industry, Kylie remains an impeccable true Gay Icon and a Diva whose music celebrates love in all its forms and colors.  Even her recent hits like "Get Outta My Way" are more uplifting than aggressive, and that what I personally feel establishes her as a true Gay Icon.   The struggle to be accepted and welcomed as who we are will never be won with aggression.  It can only be won when those who hate us learn that love can never be overcome.

Love. Just Celebrate It.

Can't be Valentine's day without the naysayers.

The Valentine's Day weekend has begun! 

With Mubarak finally stepping down from his throne (about time), Lady Gaga finally releasing her latest song (too Express Yourself for me.  I rather stick to Kylie and Katy), and everyone all around the world celebrating their relationships (or their singlehood) the world seems to be a little bit brighter today.  Amidst the rising gas prices, strange weather shifts and the continued breeding of horrible people, it is nice to know that good things do still happen.   Great things too, although one has to learn to have an eye for them nowadays.  With so much media pushing the misconception that things worth celebrating always need hype and pomp, there seem to be less and less people out there who know how to appreciate the simple good things in life.  Like, why should love only be celebrated on Valentine's day?  Why not make every day a chance to extol the fact you are able to do everything you can, whether it be spend hours surfing the net and chatting with your friends, or minutes watching your favorite shows, or days having the leisure freedom of choosing what to eat, or months of knowing you have a roof over your head.  A common adage others bring up is to think about how many people out there are not as lucky.  I personally feel that's a negative reason to celebrate.  Instead, I'd simply embrace the joys, small or simple or grand, as they are.  There's no need to compare them.  There's no need to rank them.

But if you don't celebrate them, who else will?

Everything that could have happened, happens to lead to this moment.

Do you really want someone out there to tell you to be happy you have a job?  A couch?  Or the freedom to download all your favorite porn for free?  Do you really need to splurge your partner's money on expensive things just to feel special?  Do you really need to wait for someone you love to pass away before you tell them how important they are to you?  The addiction for grander, bigger things is very dangerous.  It blinds one to seeing why everything has its worth.  It confuses one to ignore how special everything is.  In a world where there may be an infinite number of factors that can change what can happen at a given moment, can you not see how special it is that something actually is going well for you?  At the smallest scale, it may have been a matter of choice.  But that choice can be affected by so many other factors; the weather affecting your mood, the people around you influencing your views, the political climate preventing you from thinking about that choice, hell, even the planetary physics of the Earth not chancing upon a massive extinction level event causing body out there as it speeds out there at almost 30 kilometers per second.  All these things, these variables, these yes and nos, all these rippled down to the perfect sequence that lead you to the moment you were to make a choice.  Can you not see how spectacularly miraculous every single decision you make actually is?  How wonderfully-impossible-yet-actually-coming-to-pass every event in your life actually is?

But if everything is celebrated, what becomes special?

Think bigger.  If life itself is special, why stop celebrating it?

yeah, they really should come out already.

Valentine's day is a nice reminder that love, too, needs to be celebrated.  Yes, strangely enough people do forget to hold love as special.  Whether it be the lure of selfish lust, or the boredom born from lack of true communication, love sadly does die sometimes.  So Valentine's day is a good way to nudge us back on track and remember that it isn't so bad to actually do actions that show you care about someone.   And all those naysayers who think Valentine's day is just a marketing hype thing, well, they are right.  Valentine's day is more marketing now than not.  But why waste your energy shooting down the idea of celebrating love?

What day ISN'T a day where marketing tries to hype it up?

Why not simply celebrate it without falling prey to buying the most expensive bouquet of overly priced flowers?  Why not share the happiness of love without expecting imported chocolates?  Why shoot down the celebration just because you do not want to foot the bill?

My partner and I are having a Valentine's Day weekend.  While we celebrate every single day with the joy of being gay geeks who are passionately in love, we are making this a weekend where we can be shamelessly campily sweet.  Yes, we might be already that most of the day, and in some ways that is the irony of it all - that for us the Valentine's Day weekend does not seem to be that different - what will make it different is something that I will have to leave off the record for now.

:-)

Happy Valentine's day everyone.
To love.

Awww pig.

To real love.

I'm Sorry You Are Stuck With... Him.

Love, they say, means never having to say you are sorry.


Personally, I think that is one of the most idiotic and selfish ways to view love.  That ranks pretty high up there, almost equal to the idea that in love, the other person has to accept you as who you are with not a single change required at all.

And that's why you're lonely.
Or why others pity your partner.

What a huge steaming pot of cow offal these adages are!

First of all, even if you are in a loving, honest and responsible relationship, if you in any way mess up or do something wrong, then by the powers that be you better fess up and apologize to your partner.  It does not matter if your partner is socially-inept, image-conscious, uneducated, weathly-rich-spoiled, uglier than your penis warts or more beautiful than the love child of Papa P and whoever becomes his Mama, if you do something that insults him, abuses his trust, makes him look stupid, wastes his time, or worse, plays with his heart, then apologize for your lack of actual intelligence in doing it.  The act of realizing and accepting one's guilt and role in a mistake is crucial in a proper relationship to work.  So you woke up late to show up at a date?  Apologize!  Fess up as to why you did not sleep earlier and be man enough to say you are sorry.    Or maybe you somehow started a small white lie, like claimed to call your partner open-minded enough to let you fuck around, and now the lie has reached his ears and the world can see he never really saw things that way... would you really have the gall to believe you had every right to do what you wanted because in a relationship, the man you claim to love and have labelled an idiot to all your conquests should accept you as who you are?

Or rather, as WHAT you are?

Because if you are going to act like a self-centered manipulative bastard, your partner has every right to punch your lights out and call you exactly what you are.

If you are guilty, you better admit you are.
Only then does a "Sorry" really have worth.

Many counter that love requires compromise.  This is true.  But the sad thing about this truth is many stretch it too far into realms beyond actual compromise.  For example, compromise is cutting down on going out since your partner wants to stay home on some nights.   Compromise is smoking outside the house since your partner is asthmatic.  Compromise is not owning a pet since your partner is actually phobic to the said animal.

Those are proper compromises.  Those are compromises that happen in a relationship where communication actually happens.

"I thought you were just living with your ex... oh."

Compromise is not sleeping with anyone you want to since the other has never complained about it.    Compromise is not letting your partner sleep around because you are afraid to complain and mess things up and end up living life alone.  Compromise is not giving up on your hobby or dreams because your money is needed to pay your partner's extracurricular needs.  Especially when those needs are fickle expenses that he should, had he had any real-male balls between his thighs and actual contents where his brain should be, be responsible enough to curb if he can't afford on his own.

Admittedly, many people have dreams of living a carefree life.   Marry rich and die happy, they say.  Find a wealthy foreigner to foot your bills for the rest of your life.  Better yet, make sure you find someone who is afraid to be left alone.  In the straight side of things, this was very prevalent towards women.  Find a handsome rich man.  It doesn't matter if you don't really like him, you will be happy with him.  He has money. Get pregnant before he escapes.  Horrible.  Simply horrible.  Did these parents ever realize they were telling their own daughters to give up being people and just sell their vaginas to the closest man with a hefty wallet?

Makes me wanna Expose, Educate, Inspire people who think they're already perfect.
Perfectly messed up and selfish, if you ask me.

And strangely, many gay guys have embraced the very same idea.    They want to live Eat-Pray-Whatever the Fuck that book is called lives where they splurge money needlessly on quests to find themselves when their real problems were issues with them not being honest to themselves.    And before you even try to peg it on me, I have nothing against rich people or foreigners.   I do have huge issues with gold diggers.  Especially those who believe they DESERVE the other person's hard earned money.

Does he know you measure him based on his monetary worth?

A relationship requires a real sense of balance.  
And understandably, how that is defined differs from couple to couple.  I know of long term couples that have opened their doors to having sex with others.  The beauty of this?  Full disclosure.  No lies about being single to net the next cutie.  No slanderous excuses given to explain away the "room mate."  Real open relations where one tells dated guy he is actually in a relationship but the partner is open to the idea.  And the partner himself does the same thing.  Equity.  Balance.

Some how, that seems so hard to accept for most people.
So they do what is easier.  They lie.  They invent.  They tell their loved ones how special they are, then ask for money to go out and find someone new to fuck.  And that someone later on will have to discover to his horror  his hook up happens to be taken.  And the loved one learns as far as the hook up was concerned, he didn't exist... well until shit hit the fan.  So many lies.  Layer and layer that when sprung, can destroy trust that took years to earn.   That can destroy all the joyful memories that were built through the months.  Or years.

Why are you so afraid to be yourself?

It makes me wonder why bother lying?
Why not be honest to your partner?  Why not admit your needs?  Or insecurities?  Or fears?  Why not work though everything AS a couple?  After all, that is what you want to be right?  A couple?

Love is means you say sorry.  But most of the time, you won't really have to.
Well, you won't if you are doing your part.

Love fuels a relationship, after all.
And if you're not really doing your share to keeping a relationship running...

The best liars are the ones who believe their own lies.

.. you are not in Love.
So just admit it.
Don't add another layer to the lies you might already struggle to hide.

Again, Kylie speaks volumes of this.

Be honest from the start.
Full disclosure.  Better, after all, as Kylie said the devil you know.
And you will see how easy it becomes to be sensitive and true to one another.

But even French Fries deserve to be happy.
The birds though, they should learn to be content.

Saying sorry becomes a rare event.
Because there are fewer times you will ever need to say it.

So You're Finally Straight?

Have you ever met Roy G. Biv?

In the many years that I have been searching for my identity, I realized the truth that even in the gay community, there are very many shades of pink and very varied combinations of the rainbow. During my high school and college years, I can still recall how I used to struggle to find a role-model and others to relate with in terms of my then still emerging bisexuality. Having come from an extremely Catholic exclusive school for boys, when the first shades of the rainbow entered my life I was horrified and on the verge of suicidal. It felt like a blow from karma itself, considering my earlier grade school years were spent picking on the evidently gay classmates and beating them up. Thankfully, such idiotic machismo of the past were resolved with apologies way back, and I was back then left with the need to find others "like me" in a world that still believes the Virgin Mary made the sun dance.

I believe in miracles.  But those that "happen" in the Philippines... are just harder to believe.

I recall meeting many new faces and making lots of great friends. Some were straight, and some were gay. But more and more I saw that none of them were like me at all. The straight friends shared some interests of mine, but unlike me could barely tolerate theater musicals or Kylie Minogue. My gay friends loved the empress Kylie herself, but then were also into other music divas and were definitely far more effeminate and opinionated over things that I could relate with. The moment I walked to share my musings on the hot soccer player in my class, my straight male friends would shake their heads and helpfully suggest I just wank one off to calm myself down. I was just going through a phase, they would say. Til I found the right girl. When, on the other hand, I would gab about the sexy lady who agreed to be my photography model, my gay friends would call me traitor or claim I was still pretending to be straight and far to chicken to admit I was a fag. I didn't get it. Why were both sides of my life saying I didn't exist.

And that really sucked.

I AM NOW!

Nowadays, thankfully, the world has learned to see the rainbow and all its colors. Don't get me wrong, there are still a huge portion of the world that fails to grasp the broader and more accepting scope of human sexuality. But at least I do know now that real honest-to-goodness bisexual guys like me who loves cock and pussy and breasts, armpits and ass and all do actually exist. I am not alone. And while there are many still close-minded amusingly "just as homophobic as homophobes" gay guys out there, the kind of gay men who think all bisexuals are just confused or afraid to admit they are gay, there also are many who know that people like me can love another regardless of how the said other goes through puberty.

I wrote about this topic much more animatedly with a clear evident sense of frustration in my entry called The Battle for Bisexuality. I sort of cover it again today because I found myself thinking of the time many people who met me a few years back when I was still with my then girlfriend would ask, "So does this mean you are finally straight?"

One man's drama, another man's... well... drama.

Why think of that all of the sudden? Because it made me remember how many people who have embraced me as me and are proud to be my friend are really still thinking of bisexuality as just a transitional period.    I don't blame them for not knowing any better.  After all, if during my time, I was struggling to find good role models and information regarding my sexuality, I can imagine that now in the age of Google and Facebook, the search for reliable information regarding bisexuality can still be daunting.  The internet after all is filled with information:  a lot of it born from ignorance and hate, some of it born from actual wisdom, and occasionally a gem that has precisely what you need to know but is the hardest to find.

So here, in this post, I thought I'd share two links which I feel are very nice write-ups on both the myths that people tend to believe about bisexuality, as well as a broad coverage of the many facets of the gay rainbow.

They should have an episode devoted to rainbow myths.

The myths were tackled by the Bi's and Allies caucus of Pride at UIC.    They nicely list down the top seven misconceptions people tend to have about bisexuality including the myth that a bisexual person can never be faithful to one person, and that straight society actually accepts bisexuals more.

Sorry, I know she's a great person, but I still find her unibrow scary.

The other is the GOT QUEER campaign of Simon Fraser University which nicely adapts the "Got Milk" ads into an awareness movement to help bring out better gender sensitivity.  The campaign actually touches on a very wide gamut of things, and for sure there will be some who will question their choice of terms.

Ultimately, I am still happy to know such resources do exist now and if there are any still closeted guys and girls out there who actually love reading my blog, I hope these two links help you find your way.  Coming out is not just all hype and melodrama.  There really are advantages and very powerful emotionally fulfilling memories born from the act of taking that stand to proclaim you are not afraid of being yourself.  I hope that someday, you will find the courage I too found when I came out to my parents.

Yes to love in all forms.  Love!

All we want to do is love the people we love, after all.
Given all the misconceptions and lies bandied around about us, the least you can do for yourself is be proud of who you are and prove them wrong.

How do you describe a feeling?

I will always love Kylie Minogue.

Simply Wow.

While I may have a strangely broad range of music in my collection, my appreciation of her music used to be something that I had to keep private.  Partly because I wasn't quite out of the closet back then and partly because I didn't want to "share her", I used to catch Kylie's music videos on tv or hear her songs and without any outward signs, enjoy the experience of hearing her sing to me once again.  Being three years younger than my brother in the height of the 80s, I was pretty much expected to like the things he did.  When he was deeply into The Cure, I had to get into them as well.  When Depeche Mode and A-ha sang their songs, I bobbed my head and swayed my fists to the beat.  So when it came to Kylie songs and a few other Madonna tunes, I treated them as secret songs that I alone relished.

I did that for a few years.

There was I time I wanted to marry you, Tori.

There weren't much friends in my younger years who liked Kylie songs.  As strange as it may sound, even by the time college came around, I knew far more people who loved Tori Amos than I did people who loved Kylie.   Having a group that shared my love for Tori, I did in many ways gravitate more towards her music and soon ended up with both a ticket to watch her concert in Los Angeles, a video copy of her concert and unplugged performance, an $80 dollar Venus Envy pendant, and a number of her music cds.     As to Kylie, I only had my memories of her duet with Kermit the Frog and a silent joy in my heart every time I'd hear the Locomotion play.

Thankfully, all that has changed now.

Kylie is back in my life and even better, my partner shares a strong passion for her songs as well.  While other artist like Pink, Ke$sha, Rhianna or Robyn might come up with their own dance-throbbing tunes, I always found myself struggling to completely enjoy their songs particularly because of the kind of message they espouse.

I sense a conflict between message and image.

Take for instance, Pink's "Raise your Glass":

So raise your glass if you are wrong

in all the right ways, all my underdogs

we will never be anything but loud

and nitty gritty dirty little freaks

won't you come on and raise your glass!

I don't grasp the pride and joy in being different in her lyrics.  I know the message is there, but I don't feel it the way I do in other songs.  Ultimately, as fun as the song is to dance to, I struggle to embrace what Pink wants to celebrate in a song here.  Her music video, thankfully, pushes more the message that I love to hear from her.  I guess I just wish I could feel it from her song.  Different strokes I guess.

I go through the same trouble with Rihanna songs and the rest of them.  While I do understand the emotional strength of a song that channels out anger or discontent (again, I am a huge Tori Amos fan too) I don't get the need to always embrace such negativity and try to make it sound cool.  Especially when the said artist presents herself as Rock rather than Goth and so on and so forth.  It is all a performance.  It is all just an image.  It isn't about singing from the heart.  It feels like its all about singing for the paycheck.

While I admire Gaga for being creative, she has been sorely lacking in being much more original.

Kylie, on the other hand, sings with the campiness of a fag hag who loves her gay audience.  She sings of beauty and being wonderful in all ways one can be.  She sings of heart break but quickly reminds you that you deserve better and you shouldn't just be some drama queen.  She sings of love and celebrates its power as real and beautiful.

Rocky, DJ Symon and Me
(Clearly Rocky and I have had a fair amount of beer by then)

It is such a huge plus for me that my favorite haunt, O bar, has a DJ who understands my love for Kylie and how much Rocky and I love to dance to her songs.  Already there was a time the DJ mixed a series of Kylie songs just for us and made sure to let us know it was meant for us when he played it.   (Thanks again DJ Symon!)   It is interesting how Katy Perry seemingly is on the road of moving in the same direction as Kylie.  I can only wonder though when there would be more people who would learn to look past fluff and hype and appreciate good songs the way they are meant to be.

Already counting the days til Gaga copies even THIS look.

But then again, until that day happens, I don't care if only Rocky and I cheer out loud the moment a Kylie song is played in O bar.   After all, sometimes you do want to keep special things all to yourself and your partner.  Heck Kylie already has a song that captures this!

And it goes like this:

DJ's spinning up my favorite song,

Hurry up and get a grove on.

Light fantastic and it won't be long,

Don't let the moment slip away.

'Cause you and I could find a pleasure, no one else has ever known.

Feels like it is now or never, don't want to be alone

How does it feel in my arms?

How does it feel in my arms?

Do you want it?

Do you need it?

Can you feel it?

Tell me.

How does it feel in my arms?

Keep singing, dancing and spreading the love, Kylie!
You make the world a far better, lovelier, musical place!




For the curious, here is my list of my favorite Kylie songs:

• Locomotion
• Give just a little more time
• Especially for you
• Cant get you out of my head
• Wow
• More more more
• Come into my world
• Fever
• In my Arms
• All the lovers
• Get out of my way

On the Dance Floor

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