Pink Sauce

To mark the month, LGBT History Month UK have put together resource pages on their website. These include some information about prominent black LGBT people and black LGBT organisations. Their blog will also feature specific posts throughout the month. You can view these pages by clicking here or on the image above.

I don't normally remember my dreams. It's probably just as well. The other day however, I remembered the appearance in my slumbering psyche of a yellow beetle flying towards me in my room. Nothing else. A day or two before that Slightly, who into all these things, told me about two dreams that two members of his family had had about him. Both were apparently good omens predicting financial success. When I first remembered the nightly insect the morning after, I mistakenly remembered it as a scarab. My friend Google quickly confirmed the hunch I had that scarabs meant good luck in ancient Egypt. Slightly confirmed to me that dreams of any yellow (golden) insect (apart from spiders, who are not insects anyway) announce a windfall. Perhaps the insect was simply announcing the arrival of the cheque I mentioned in my previous post but I want to believe (and why not), that, coupled with Slightly's own dreams, this has to do with the new venture we are starting together. On 14th O...

A couple of weeks ago, I received a message through my Flickr account. It was about the picture above. I'm from a design company in Covent Garden and would like to use the shot for a brochure for LU. We would of course pay you, but would need a higher resolution image if you have one. I took the picture around 5.30 one morning in April this year. I am not sure why I was up so early and looking out of the window that day, but the fact is that I did, saw this lovely sight and snapped it. The brochure is internal to London Underground but I should get a copy anyway. Today I received a cheque for £200 in payment for the use of the picture. That's my now aging digital camera having almost paid for itself (It cost me £300 in 2002). Funnily enough, a few days later, I received another message by the same channel and about the same picture, although from an American fondery, this time. I recently just finished developing a series of typefaces based on the London Underground typeface an...

The DfES is in the process of consulting the public for the introduction of a bill on barring people from working with children and vulnerable adults. They are considering a series of offences which would automatically disqualify an individual without a chance of appeal. Among these offences it is surprising to find references to the Sexual Offences Act 1956, notably with the offences of buggery and indecency between men. Both these offences, which were aimed directly at gay men, have now been repealed from the statute books and should therefore not be considered any more. This would means that some people (older gay men) who might have been convicted of these offences several decades ago would be disqualified while other people who would not have been convicted for the same acts (because no longer an offence) would not be rejected. There is also an implicit suggestion that gay men are not suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These elements of the consultation seems to...

I had a rather busy day today; something I am certainly not used to any more. I rolled out of bed at 8, had a quick shower and put a suit on, then walked round the block to the Imperial War Museum . I was there as chair of the LGBT Network to attend the Peace Breakfast organised by the Southwark Multi-faith Forum and the Volunteers Centres Southwark to mark the anniversary of 9/11. There were of gay and lesbian people with me and we spread ourselves as much as we could. We didn't really know how we would be received as we had to more or less beg for an open invite to the event. It all went very well and we hope that this is the start of something important. The Deputy Borough Commander, the Mayor and the rabbi from the South London Liberal Synagogue spoke, awards were given, we ate and had facilitated "discussions". All very civilised and friendly. What was perhaps the most surprising was the the rabbi, during his speech mentioned his involvement with Jews Against the Cl...

The following comment was left on the picture above on my flickr account: Hi, Zefrog. I salute your promptness in getting these photos up and running. This is a great shot, and so I have borrowed it for a piece on www.londonist.com Thanks. You can read the article in question here .

This morning I put my legs on and got myself out of the house for a short walk up the road to Parliament Square where a new statue of Nelson Mandela was being unveiled. The ceremony was scheduled for 11am but the blog on which I found this information suggested to get there at about 10. This is what I did and was grateful for it as people were already waiting when I got there. While a short film on Mandela's life was shown on the giant screens, we watched as guests arrived and were directed to their seats by GLA staff (I recognised the Mayor's LGBT advisor, on the breach). Most faces were unknown to me though I spotted (Dr) Brian May (former Queen), Darren Johnson (leader of the Green Party at teh GLA), David Cameron, John Prescott and Peter Hain. There was even a representative of the BME LGBT community which was a nice touch. Jesse Jackson was there too but he arrived late. The ceremony had already started. He was quick however once it was finished to step up to the stat...

Just when I said I had nothing to blog about, I had a look at the traffic counter for this blog (to be found at the bottom of the sidebar) and realised that a picture I uploaded in February 2006 is ranking second (out of just under 2M) in the Google Images search for Islam . I am getting quite a few hits from there. This was at the time of the controversy surrounding the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed published by a Swedish paper. I had used the pic to illustrate one of my posts on the subject (the others can be found here , here and here ). So far, I haven't received any comment or reaction but I am fully expecting some nutter to take offense of my western liberal anti-religious views on the subject. This extra traffic will probably not even bring me any extra readers since, just like the other high ranking pic on this blog (number 8 out of about 4.5M), it probably won't be the favorite search term for people who would be interested by the content of this blog.

After several weeks without a computer, I am indeed finally back online and I know I should be blogging like there is no tomorrow. However, and please note that I am not moaning or being depressed (or even asking for help) about it, my life is currently a complete blank. I have no social interaction to speak of with any one and I spend most of my weeks at home. I went out only three times this week. Once to Tesco for my food shopping, a second time was a lovely outing of the Southwark LGBT Network at the National Portrait Gallery for a queer view of a few of their paintings. Finally, yesterday, I had a meeting with my business partners. The rest of the time is more or less a blur of nothingness. If you are really missing reading what I can come up with (although you won't find opinion pieces), you can find me on the LGBT History Month blog of which I am the editor. The blog provides information and events details of events linked to LGBT History. I hope you find it interesting.

After 8 weeks of customer service comedy, phone calls and toing and froing of all kinds, I received on Saturday a voucher to replace my laptop which had been deemed irreparable after having been lost and found (more on this later). So today, I went to PC World on the Old Kent Road and gave myself over to the dark side. TADDAAAAH! A Macbook! In the first few weeks of my troubles, I had been lent a laptop running Vista and I have to say I was not impressed. What I like(d) about PC's is that you can fiddle. You can tweak things, go behind the screen and adapt. To an extent. Mac on the other hand runs smoothly, is all about integration and in many ways is for people who are more interested in results than in learning how to use a computer. Vista, in my few, unfortunately and unhappily sits on the fence and ends up to be more frustrating than anything else. This herralds the end of the fiddly PC as I liked it. Mac is also the machine of choice for people working in the creative industry...

About a month ago, my laptop decided to die on me. It just refused to start up. I sent it to the repair people via courier. Repairs were going to take two weeks (and that was only changing the CD player (which was also not working) so that I could restore the whole: ie do the work myself! I still haven't received my laptop back although apparently the repairs have been made. The laptop has apparently been lost by Parceline the courier company (who are not very good: they have apparently been several times but can't be bothered to use my mobile phone. Slightly has had problem with them with the reasons why his stuff wasn't delivered changing at each new phone call). I am not really bothered about the laptop. It was getting oldish (3 years) and all my data is backed up. Getting a new one seems like a good thing after all. During all that time, the nice people at LGBT History Month (I am their webmaster, now remember) have lent me a laptop and by the same token, life! Today ho...

Let loose and on the run! Fresh from the Scotland leg of the Bad Boys Tour, the London Gay Men's Chorus is back in London; brace yourselves for one of the sexiest, sassiest celebrations of villainy ever seen on stage. Including music from James Bond, Chicago , Carmen Jones and Jerry Springer - The Opera , and songs by Queen, The Eagles and Wham, everybody knows Bad Boys get the good tunes and this show has them all. It’s about low lives lived on the wrong side of the tracks. It’s about going off the rails. From the back of the classroom to the depths of the underworld, it’s one hell of a ride. Tickets are going fast! Concert includes: Queen: We will Rock You, Don't Stop me Now, Bohemian Rhapsody Wham: Bad Boys Carmina Burana: O Fortuna The Eagles: Desperado Jerry Springer: The Opera " I Just Wanna Dance " Tom Lehrer: Machismo Tango Frankie Goes to Hollywood: Relax Bad Boys Cadogan Hall 5 Sloane Terrace London SW1X 9DQ July 20 and July 21 2007 - 7:30pm Box Office: 0...

A friend of mine with an interest (bordering on the mania) in the history of theatres and cinemas regularly asks me, usually after imparting some obscure point of trivia, if I think he is mad. I don't think he is particularly. People with a passion, especially the kind of passion that doesn't hurt anyone, are usually interesting and for me admirable, since my enthusiasm is a rather lethargic beast. After tonight, I think I might have to become the one asking the other whether I am mad. The shop on the ground floor of the house I have been living in for about 4 years now has recently changed owners. For about a month, there has been some extensive works in the shop and tonight the fascia and signage of the old shop were taken down and unceremoneously dumped. Just after midnight, to be sure that all workers were gone, I sneeked out and from the pile of unwanted plastic retrieved one of the panels that used to hang perpendicularly from the first floor outside wall of house. It see...

Gloria Gaynor is currently in the uk for a series of shows. This morning she was interviewed by Radio4's Woman's Hour. The singer talked about her youth, her career, about some of her most famous songs, several of which have become gay anthems. She also talked about her becoming a born again Christian. Finally the interviewer asked her about her status as a gay icon. She said she was really pleased with this and that saw it as an opportunity to lead her fans towards Christ. The interviewer then asked several times if there might be a contradiction between her faith and her having a gay fan base, if she considered homosexuality as a sin. Gaynor each time refused to answer the question directly. She only said that she is leading her fans to Christ and what he has to offer to them. The interview can be listened to for a limited period of time here . More details here .

Serendipity is like a benevolent fairy godmother for many a gay man looking for his roots. The fact that our history as a group has been so carefully hidden and pushed into the proverbial closet for so long makes any new discovery like a victory, even if that very discovery has been and will be made over and over by fellow solitary travellers. I had such moment of serendipity earlier this week, itself the result of another such moment for someone else. A Friend of mine with an interest in theatre and cinema brought my attention to a BBC Radio 2 which had delivered to him more than the original unpromising expected few comments about a certain film. The programme, about the evolution of the representation of sexual moors in British cinema, included some un-trailed remarks about a few moments of cinematographic LGBT history which my friend thought worth sharing. The programme of course mentioned the well known film Victim which was released in 1961. The film was quite a risky career mov...

Despite the recent discovery of two bombs in the West End on Friday and the unwelcoming weather, the streets of London got invaded by hords of festive homosexuals today. Neither above mentioned circumstances seem to have managed to deter people from making a stand. The heavens truely opened just before the Parade got underway at 1pm but then the skies became more clement and the rest of the afternoon went ok in that respect. This year for the first time since my first Pride (in 2003), I wasn't stewarding the parade but simply took part in the fun. I was walking with the Southwark LGBT Network (of which I am the Chair, as some may remember). Last year (like the two previous years) the Network had a float. I was a "wheel Stewart" for said float. This year we had decided to go for something a little less honerous (both financally and in terms of organisation) and had simply hired 4 bug bugs (with "drivers") and had invited people to come with their wheels (bicy...

Slightly : is not aging well:

Some trawling of the net I was doing earlier today for research purposes took me to the website of the venerable Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce . I had a bit of a schock there as I recognised bank in the middle of the front page a picture I took a few months back. This was in Trafalgar Square for an event called Eat London where community groups had recreated a map of London with food. I took the picture on the steps of the square as a good illustration of London's diverse population. I am rather chuffed, I must say. Below you can view the original pic and the credit on the RSA website:

by Eliot Weinberger , London Review of Books , Vol. 27 No. 3, 3 February 2005 A prose poem drawing on reports, newspapers, official utterances and eye-witness accounts to paint a terrifying picture of the war in Iraq. In 1992, a year after the first Gulf War, I heard Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, say that the US had been wise not to invade Baghdad and get ‘bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq’. I heard him say: ‘The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is: not that damned many.’ In February 2001, I heard Colin Powell say that Saddam Hussein ‘has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.’ That same month, I heard that a CIA report stated: ‘We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programmes.’ ...

And so ends this tiny glimpse into my psyche of 2002. I hope you enjoyed it or at least found it of interest. Most of the people you have met in those few pages are now no longer part of my life. MPB, the polish woman, I decided to let go after a while when I realised that the relationship was too strongly tipping to her advantage for my liking. I perhaps did not do that at the best time for her, and I am slightly ashamed of that timing but I had to be done. Right after my trip to Paris, PFM decided to cut all communication with me, without explanation. This did not come as too much of a surprise as I had seen her do the same thing to other people in the past. My guess is that she got back with K. and that my insistance, when I saw her in Paris, that it was probably best for her that the relationship should have stopped did not endear me too much. I don't know. MFS gave up on my after a while when she saw she could not interest me in her buddhist practice. She also found herself a ...