Pink Sauce

Tonight I watched The Greatest Showman, which I hadn't seen before and is currently available on All4 for a few more days. I know it's a divisive film: some people love it and lots of people seem to loathe it. While I found it reasonably entertaining, I have to say that it is a bad film. Not in the quality sense (and then again) but in the moral sense. First the goods things: It looks good and the songs are pleasant and catchy. "It's Me" in particular should become a gay anthem. It's perfect for it. Then the bad things (quality and moral): the storyline is not very good. it ends very abruptly and the songs don't blend very well within the narrative which give it a distracting stop and start quality (that word again!). More importantly, though, and what makes this film ultimately reprehensible, is that it is another film about white male privilege. It's all about the two good-looking white blokes who just have to click their fingers to get the ...

I could carry on tinkering with it until Christmas and beyond, I'm sure, but I think the time as come to stop and let my short story go and live its stunted life in the big out there.  Plenty of Time For James, this grey morning of July 2005 is like any other, as he wakes up, gets ready and walks to the tube station to catch his train to work. Until he makes a mistake.   It is 3,400 words long and should take about 30min to read.  To mark the occasion I've created  a webpage  that includes my previous effort (and hopefully, soon, future ones). All in one place, now! This also has a feedback form, which I invite you to use should you kindly grant me time to read my work. The feedback can be given anonymously, so no excuse!  Enjoy!  Health warning: The language I use in this story (quite different from that of the other one) is not going to be to most people's taste. Readers of English tend to prefer simple language. This isn't simple. It's full of adje...

Last night I ended up binge watching the whole series of Emily in Paris  on Netflix, after spotting on twitter someone live-tweeting their viewing of the first episode , which is, admittedly, pretty bad.  The series, which comes from the creators of Sex and the City , is the story of Emily, a girl from Chicago who ends up being given a job as her PR company's envoy to its newly acquired French subsidiary. Her role is to tell that bunch of feckless frogs how to do their job. Something they prove surprisingly not very keen on...  Because this is all about luxury, glamour and attracting the yoofs, she is a Gen Z marketeer specialising in social media, even though she only has 48 followers on IG when the show starts(!).  She also doesn't speak French, which should probably disqualify her but that is not the case, because Emily, played by Lily Collins, daughter of Phil, is a pretty girl reaping the benefits of her white privilege, in her inordinately spacious, compan...

The original poster and Netflix's version There's a storm currently well past brewing in a corner of Twitter about a French film called "Les Mignonnes" ("Cuties" in English), directed by French-Senegalese Maïmouna Doucouré.  The shitstorm started when Netflix announced last month that it was going to show the film and accompanied that announcement with its own poster, showing the young girls at the centre of the film in tight-fitting, revealing outfits and suggestive poses.  Without having even seen the film, and solely going by that image, people started to denounce cultural condescension, exploitation and gratuitous sexualisation. The film is a paedophile's wet dream, capable of perverting the young (though the film has certificate 15), we are told.  Almost 400,000 people have signed a petition demanding Netlflix remove the film from its listings, and that the whole website be "cancelled".  The story has crossed over to the press. People are ...

This was intended as a short Facebook status update... It's been a busy time at the cultural mill this bank-holiday weekend. Eddie dragged me to no less than 6 exhibitions (and there was ancillary cake, of course).  First it was was Tate Modern for the Pierre Bonnard exhibition on Saturday.  I knew OF Bonnard, of course, but very little about him and his work, which doesn't attract me visually, if I'm honest. I can't say I have become a convert after seeing the show but I found his use of framing (for his paintings and the use of frames within the frame) as well as what felt like an attempt to create abstractions from everyday situations interesting (and resonant).  In the Bathroom (1940) I had bumped into a matinal friend when arriving at the gallery and he had recommended having a look at the Dorothea Tanning exhibition, so we popped in. While I recognise the quality of the draftsmanship generally shown by surrealists, I can't say that their stuff is my bag...

I spent Christmas Day 2017 at a friend's place. After indulging in all sorts of delicious foods he had prepared, we lay in a mild torpor on his sofa, half watching television. One of the programmes unfolding before our bleary eyes happened to be the festive Dr Who episode, which included a scene in the trenches of the First World War during that infamous football match in 1914. This was, of course, in reference to the celebrations of the centenary of the war. In any case, this somehow imprinted itself into my subconscious and within the next few days, a story presented itself to my mind. Over the following months, I endeavoured to commit it to electronic paper. This is my first completed attempt at writing fiction. I am grateful to my first readers, Eddie, Sue, Richard, Russell and Andrew, who were kind enough to say positive things about the story, and also provided input and feedback. It is, I think, now time to release it unto the unsuspecting world, 104 years to the day a...

"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.", wrote Isaac Newton in 1675. It wasn’t an original thought even at the time but as we reach the middle of this year’s LGBT History Month, and as some wonder what the need is for such an event, this quote seems particularly apt.  Although, as in so many cases, evidence is scant, Newton seems likely to have been at least romantically attracted to men. A possible proclivity, which, like that of so many other prominent figures, is either not discussed or actively maintained in the recesses of the darkest closet by an interested or downright hostile society.  Further than this, however, the quote epitomises the situation of any LGBT person living in the UK in 2018. It is a cliché but we do indeed stand on the shoulders of giants; people who have had the courage to speak out and push for laws and mentalities to change; for us to be in a position to live our lives more or less as we please (although, as rese...

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from a free lance journalist working for BBC Three. He explained he was working on an article about the resurgence of the use of the term "androphile" among right-wing men as a way to distance themselves from the supposed lefty connotations of the word "gay". Something that was news to me. The journalist wanted to conduct a phone interview with me because somehow he'd found out that when I first created this blog (in 2004), I used the word "androphile" to describe myself.  I should have known better, having been interviewed before, but I agreed to talk to him. When you read the result of an interview you find that the gist of what you said is indeed there but because of the need for pithyness and, possibly, a chinese-whispers effect, your words are also stripped of at least some of their nuance, and somehow not fully representative of what you meant. Hence this post, I suppose.  You can read the resul...

*MILD SPOILER ALERT* God's Own Country (GOC) has been garnering plaudits from critics and audiences alike. The gays on my TL who's seen it are raving about it. Yet on the face of it the film hardly seem material for success. It is a totally conventional romcom story (indeed it has been compared to another (Brokeback Mountain)): an interloper comes to rescue the main character from the doldrums. They don't like each other at the beginning but love triumphs in the end.  The worth here is in the storytelling. The justness of the tone, full of delicate details but always successfully avoiding sentimentality, the sensitive portrayals of the characters, the raw, unflinching scenes, make GOC an out of the ordinary exploration of love and male identity.  That the film is a gay love story is, I would argue, ultimately quite secondary, a narrative device almost, although to most viewers this will probably feel quite central. The facts that it is set in the dourness of the ...

You'll have noticed them on a pavement or at a street corner in the past few days. There's a new set of players in town trying to lure you into taking them for a ride. They are wild and free; they don't need docking stations; the  obikes are in town and they want your attentions. Since I needed to pay Canada Water a visit, which is unhelpfully located outside the catchment zone of the TfL/Santander Cycle Hire scheme, I decided to take the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity by using one of those obikes to take myself there from Elephant and Castle.  A similar hire scheme, called Mokibes, recently opened in Manchester and there's apparently been what we shall modestly call a few teething problems . Even the London scheme, where people are invited to leave the bikes near an official bike parking location, seems to have created some confusion, as seen in the image below I shot earlier this week. I should probably mention here that I am a great fan and have ...

Knowing that despite the staggering seven million copies printed, not everyone would have been able to see it, French blogger Antoine Léaument has kindly shared the editorial published by Charlie Hebdo in its issue following the terror attacks last week. With a similar aim of getting as many people as possible to read the piece, I have produced a rough and ready English translation of said editorial that you can read below. I attended two of the gatherings that took place in London (on 07th and 11th January) to show solidarity with the victims. My pictures of the events are here and here . You can make a donation to Charlie Hebdo here . Will there still be "yes, buts"? Charlie Hebdo Editorial, No. 1178 of January 14, 2015 For the past week, Charlie, an atheist newspaper, has performed more miracles than all the saints and prophets combined. What we are most proud of is that you have in your hands the paper we have always made in the company of those who have a...

Impressions. My pictures of Brussels can be found on flickr  here . Due to a some problem when coming back from a trip to Paris on the Eurostar, I had been given 50% off on another trip and rather than returning to Paris, I thought I would use it to go to Brussels where I had never been. I had been warned that Brussels is not a particularly pretty city. My expectations were therefore not very high, further dampened by the forecast of rain. Thankfully that rain never materialised and I was lucky to have very sunny, unseasonably hot, weather. It seems however true that Bruxelles is not the best looking of cities. The commentary on the bus tours I took extolled the merits of the city as the once capital of the second richest empire on earth, now the modern international centre of the economic and political union of over 500 million people. But, with the exceptions of a few pockets dispersed throughout the city centre, it lacks the grandeur you would expect from such a p...

I started writing this a question on the Facebook group of my photography group and it seemed to turned into something much longer, so I decided to post it here too.  Those of you based in the UK will probably have heard of the Women Who Eat on the Tube furore that's slowly leaked from social media into the mainstream news cycle. I think this raises some questions for those of us with an interest in street photography (whether just passing or more serious).  This morning the guy behind the idea was on Today defending his actions as an innocuous personal art project victim of its own success. The consensus among the critics seems to be that the whole thing is sexist and just another way for chauvinists to shame women.  Although I can see that specifically "targeting" women can be seen as a little suspicious, my understanding is that it was mostly the later (once the thing (started in 2011) got some traction) comments on those pictures that did the shaming....

I managed to get a press pass for Pride London again this year. This gave me access to a loo in a nearby hotel at the end of the parade(!) but more importantly to the pit at the front of the main stage where my arms got thoroughly burned by an unusual appearance from the sun. The dwindling number of fundamentalists protesting the parade (there weren't even 20 of them this year!) would probably remind me that that's one gets from pride: the burns of hellfire... I'm glad to report that no debacle like that of last year with Boy George took place this year and that the artistes with whom I shared my images on Twitter have been very gracious about it. Some have even asked for permission to use the images. On Sunday, to finish a gay old week-end in style, I was at Tate Britain for Queer Britannia , a mellow and relaxing tour of the newly hung galleries, highlighting some of the gay-friendly pieces on display. Again pictures were taken... ( full flickr set ) Full Pride se...

Saturday marks the opening of an exhibition organised by Foyles and the Gay Photographers Network. It will showcase the works of some of the GPN's members around the themes of Literary London, Travel, Love and Marriage and Mind, Body and Soul. I'm very proud to be among those whose images will be featured. As I also have an image in a show celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Pink Singers , this marks the fourth exhibition in which my work has been displayed. And I have more plans for later in the year... So if you find yourselves in Charing Cross Road in the next five weeks, drag yourselves to the gallery on the 3rd floor and (hopefully) enjoy our works. On your way down, you can stop at the cafe for a nice sit down and a cuppa and enjoy a few more works from some of our members. Beyond Words Gallery at Foyles, Charing Cross Road 29 June to 03 August Admission free more info: here and here .

The latest photowalk organised by the Gay Photographers Network was at Kew Gardens. I had been some years ago but the location (not really close from my patch) and the entrance fee had prevented me from returning. I must also confess to not being that excited by plants and trees... I had my fill as a kid, I suppose. As we got there it was raining which didn't bode too well for the next few hours. We took shelter in the sweltering atmosphere of the Palm House and thankfully the weather soon started to clear to finally offer a glorious afternoon. The rest of the day, punctuated by a well deserved and most welcome cup of tea with cake, went on without problem, taking us from the waterlily house to the treetops walk and the formal gardens of Kew Palace. My images can be viewed on flickr here .

You know how Facebook has decided to include "sponsored posts" to your timeline, advertising things you don't need or already have? Well, recently one of those adverts (let's call a spade a spade), actually turned out to be of interest. Sony is launching a new compact camera and to mark the occasion were inviting people to sign up to attend an event on the 31st floor of Centre Point. The highest building in the West End. Called the Viewing Tower, this was an opportunity to test the ultra powerful zoom of the new camera. And of course an great opportunity to whip out our own cameras. The weather was good for most of the time, though sadly it all clouded over later in the evening, anihilating any chance of a sunset and we got busy. My images can be viewed on flickr here .

It's been a couple of weeks now. Almost every day I see people on the roof of a building I know to be broaded up. And of course, I want to get on that roof too. I made a first attempt on Sunday but unfortunately couldn't find access. In desperation, I decided to email JB , who specialises in shooting London from the rooftops . Perhaps he would have an idea on how to get there. I met JB at the meeting of my photo group where he persented his work. I chatted to him afterwards and offered a couple of leads of possible places I could use for future shoots. JB kindly offered to meet up to try and find out a way. First we went to a nearby building and took a few shots from there before having a walk around the Heygate estate. Finally we managed to find hidden access and found ourselves on the roof just in time for sunset. We weren't alone there. Street artists were at work already and other visitors joined us later. It is clearly a popular spot. That's how I spent an...

The demolition of the Heygate Estate is apparently soon to begin. Technically it already has, with phase 1 of the project, at the far south east of the site, already flattened for some months. I'm talking about the main building, those big looming slabs of concrete that delimit the site. First they will start by the buildings south of Heygate Street. That should happen by the end of this year. Within 3 years, it should all have gone. In the meantime, street artists are taking over the place with Southwark Council desparately and ineffectively wasting paint and money to try and keep everything a uniform grey. Urban gardeners, photographers and parkour adepts are also at it and the place though decrepit still welcomes a surprising amount of activity. Goaded by the sight of people on one of the rooftop, I made my third proper visit to the site yesterday. Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to access that rooftop but I got a few nice shots. Yesterday's images can be viewed...

Gaydar's new Find Him feature Apps for smart phones have become all the rage, we all know that. You can get one for just about anything. And while they are an effective tool to reach customers for any brand wanting to appear modern, they do present a big problem for developers and to a point for users: The need to comply with whatever rules the owner of the shop/OS carrying your app decides to impose on content and format. There are also fears that apps could lead to a ghettoisation of the Web, where it is no longer possible to move easily from one platform to another. From a gay user's perspective, perhaps the most obvious manifestation of those restrictions on content, are the policies on levels of nudity allowed in geolocated "dating" apps; policies, the implementation of which has been known to be patchy and inconsistant, not to mention, for the developer, (no doubt) costly to enforce and police. It is therefore interesting and perhaps not altogether surp...