BUT I PROMPTLY TURNED INTO A WALLFLOWER
IN HIS PRESENCE
(I'M SHY AROUND MY CRUSHES.)
ALL I GOT WAS THIS BLURRED PIC.
SO I JUST SAT DOWN...
LISTENED...
AND BECAME ONE...
WITH THE CARPET.
THANKS TO THE 'CHICAGO MIX' BAGS OF GARRTT POPCORN ON THE SNACK COUNTER,
MY NIGHT - SLOWLY - GREW MORE AND MORE COLOURFUL.
CHEESY CHEESECORN™ TO WAKE MY PALATE UP
+ SWEET CARAMELCRISP® TO RESET MY ENERGY BACK TO #HYPR!
...IT WAS SO GOOD,
I HAD TO KEEP WORKING THROUGH MY LITTLE BAGGIE
ON THE STEPS OF STANDARD CHARTERED BANK'S HEADQUARTERS
WHILST ADMIRING HK'S MAJESTIC SKYSCRAPERS.
GOSH, THIS POPCORN - THEY WERE INVENTED IN CHICAGO OVER 60 YEARS AGO. THEY'VE CERTAINLY COME A LONG WAY!
SO IRRESISTIBLE,
I HAD TO POP THE LID
ON THE 1 GALLON TIN (PINK, NATCH)
THAT SCOTT SCHROEDER, GARRETT POPCORN'S EVP & CHIEF BRAND OFFICER,
GAVE ME FOR MY BIRTHDAY.
IT WAS A GRAND OPENING.
#HYPR HEART GARRETT POPCORN.
MONDAYS ARE MANIC AT THE OFFICE.
BUT TODAY, I'M TAKING MY GINORMOUS TIN OF GARRETT POPCORN
TO HELP MAKE MONDAYS MARVELOUS!
AFTER ALL, IF IT MAKES ME HAPPY TO EAT GREAT POPCORN,
SURELY, IT HAS THAT EFFECT ON OTHER PEOPLE, TOO!
It is the height of AWFULness. HOW / WHY the fuck did this song get recorded, when the vocalist was incoherent? Or, was that why this was given a pass - exactly because the vocalist (can't bring myself to say 'singer'...) was so incoherent, it therefore qualifies as one of those "it's so bad, it's good" moments in pop culture???
Now we know what "unable to carry a tune" means; nowhere - not for second - was this tune ever carried, much less, sang.
DISCLAIMER
It's unfortunate that a healthy 33 year old pop star suddenly died the way Stephen Gately did, and even more so that cheap controversy followed.
It was yucky, how the Bulgarian "friend" who had slept with Gately's partner, Andrew Cowles, allegedly sold the story for E70,000 to The Sun. What a lowlife.
On
Monday, Costa Rican lawmakers passed a bill that concerned various
social services for young people. On Tuesday, they woke up to the
realization that they had pretty much legalized gay marriage.
Conservative
lawmakers were appalled when they found that the law they had voted on
had language inserted into it by liberal politicians that expanded
social rights for gay people as well as extending the benefits of a
civil union to gay couples.
“During the
discussion in the first debate, we explained that the Law of Young
People should be interpreted with this sense of opening to gays and no
one objected,” explained liberal politician José María Villalta.
Conservatives
are calling on the president of Costa Rica to immediately veto the
bill. Recent surveys show that the population of Costa Rica is opposed
to gay marriage.
If approved
by the president, the law would have to withstand court challenges,
which it would most likely lose. Still, the accidental legalization has
given advocates a platform to discuss the need for gay marriage and
maybe change the minds of Costa Ricans.
“It is a big step forward for gay rights in Costa Rica,” Costa Rican gay rights advocate Marco Castillo said in an interview.
Many in the LGBT community question the big hullabaloo surrounding Charice's coming out. Of course we still love and support her - nothing has changed; we could tell years ago that she was different anyway - that she's very likely one of us; we applaud her courage to come out into the open, etc. Really - darling, it's not a big deal! Shouldn't we therefore lead the charge towards the day when this type of announcement isn't newsworthy or necessary any more, by collectively having a more muted reaction?
But it is a big deal exactly because it is Charice. Here's why:
05 She defines celebrity today.
Certainly there have been other Filipino artists who have blazed a trail to international stardom. Lea Salonga is Broadway and Disney royalty. She is who she is thanks in part (a big part) to an elite group of taste makers. Producers, directors, critics - the Culturati.
In contrast, Charice is a product of self-promotion. She's a YouTube sensation. And she's relevant because she built and nurtured a massive following on her own long before influential taste makers came along to validate her talent. She's a true-blue internet celebrity.
Really, Charice shares more in common with Justin Bieber than she does with Lea Salonga. Lea and Charice are both Filipinos, but...
04 Charice is the new Pinoy. Relentlessly hardworking - sure. Insanely talented - absolutely. But also fearless, worldly, entitled and unapologetic.
She's got swagger. Brand Pinoy is so hot these days, it's cool. apl.de.ap. Nicole Scherzinger. Jessica Sanchez. Darren Criss. And speaking of Darren Criss...
03 Glee. Apart from Charice, who else has had guest appearances in this Emmy and Golden Globe-winning musical-dramedy television series?
- Olivia Newton-John
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- and Perez Hilton, also a true-blue internet celebrity.
Charice is in good company (hello, understatement!). Glee is arguably the most popular show about and amongst LGBT youth. There's no bigger platform for an LGBT role model than Glee. The only thing bigger than Glee is...
02 Oprah. Make that Oprah Winfrey and her ginormous sphere of influence. Once Oprah got into Charice's inner circle (we've already established that the taste makers are the late comers, in this case), the Celine Dion and David Foster connections were activated. Madison Square Garden, Las Vegas, Oscars after-parties, and an album that debuted at number 8 on the albums chart soon followed. To this day, Charice is the only Asian singer to have landed in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200.
She's still a long way away from Melissa Etheridge and k.d. lang - and for sure Sir Elton John belongs to an even higher echelon. But damn if Charice isn't breathing the same air as these gay music giants.
Before we start having unrealistic expectations about the music she'll be making from here onwards, though, let's be reminded that Charice is too much a product of new media. It's therefore unlikely that her music will take on an angst-y (artsy?) complexity, simply because she has arrived at the doorstep of the LGBT universe. It's very likely, however, that we'll start hearing a deeper layer of pain because...
01 She's estranged from her mother.
This, I feel, should be the crux of Charice's coming out story. My fellow Charice fans know too well that her mum, Racquel, was practically her shadow. It even seemed to me like the absence of a love interest in Charice's life was because there wasn't any physical or emotional space available for anybody else to maneuver - that's how tight they were (watch the video below).
So what happened?
The Philippine Star reports that Charice is presently staying in the house of a family friend:
“I left our home because that’s what I had to do for now. Now, I can enter a house where I can do anything [without anyone passing judgment]."
Charice then thanked what she called her "second family” for accepting her. In the next breath, she expressed hope that she and her mom and her grandmother will be able to sort things out and let bygones by bygones.
Woe be unto us, human beings, when judgment and rejection come from the first place we'd hope to receive love and affirmation instead.
Whilst we celebrate pockets of victory in our campaign for marriage equality, Charice, poster child for today's LGBT youth, is fighting a war we've had to endure for decades:
Yesterday I was riveted to a photo of two, mature Asian men kissing whilst thumbing through the main broadsheet of the South China Morning Post. It was of South Korean filmmaker Kim Jho Gwang-soo and his partner of nine years, announcing plans to marry. It's a bid to pry the closet open in this super conservative country where homosexuality is still taboo and hate crimes against gays are commonplace. (I was stunned to hear some of the awful stories my brother-in-law, Ronnie, shared from his days in the military.)
I was captivated by the pic because older Asian gay couples have grown so used to discrimination, any display of public affection would be considered dangerous - even irresponsible. The only other Korean celebrity to have come out was actor Hong Seok-Cheon, way back in 2000 - 13 long years ago! He now says he regrets his decision because work promptly dried up. But, hello - he has since turned his fate around by founding a restaurant empire! I got to try two of his places out - fab, as you would expect from an A-List gay entrepreneur-slash-taste maker.
So anyway, the LGBT movement in Korea seems to be at a turning point. The Korea Queer Festival, which takes place over a 16-day (!!) period, is ongoing and includes performances, parties and a parade. One of the parties takes place at Condom Cafe (!!!). For that alone, I want to go back to Seoul NOW.
It'd be nice to have a Mr Gay Korea competition be part of the KQF, too. But I don't really have the bandwidth for that. Duh - as if it's not hard enough to mount a Mr Gay HK competition yearly! I must content myself with visiting my nephew, Robin, for now, in the hopes that Korean LGBTs emulate Kim Jho Gwang-soo en masse soon. Only after Korean LGBTs realize that coming out can be a cool thing could a Mr Gay competition finally fly.
Brava to Kim Jho Gwang-soo and his gentleman-love. Hopefully this grand gesture leads to an easing up of homophobic views not just in Korea, but throughout the rest of the world. I think it was John Lennon who once questioned why we conduct violent warfare openly but we make love in secret - how the hell does that make sense?? Or something to that effect.
HYPERACTIVE, KEE CLUB'S MARC-DAVID
AND CHARMING BUSINESSMAN CARLOS
CELEBRATING HONG KONG'S AMBASSADORS INCLUDE HK'S CHIEF EXECUTIVE CY LEUNG (FOREGROUND),
PANSY HO (IN CREAM), ALLAN ZEMAN (LEFT; BENT OVER THE LITTLE BOY)
AND 7-YEAR OLD ARTIST KENNY LAU,
WHO DELIVERED A SPEECH IN CANTONESE AND ENGLISH.
Last Tuesday my boss Greg and I trekked to Sotheby's at One Pacific Place to attend the launch of the South China Morning Post's Celebrating Hong Kong campaign.
My eyes grew as big as saucers as soon as we got to the venue. There were priceless pieces of art everywhere, including paintings by Warhol and Banksy. That was just to start with. As soon as I finished gawking at the art, I realized that the most important people in Hong Kong were at the event - including Chief Executive CY Leung and former Chief Secretary Sir David Akers-Jones, who delivered a stirring speech. I wasn't expecting to see anyone I knew personally, but was especially pleased to see Kee Club's Marc-David and his partner Carlos, and Ecovision's Lisa Christensen and Nissa Marion.
The SCMP's CEO, Robin Hu, noted that bad news - scandal! tragedy! calamity! - often gets reported whilst good news almost never does, and no news is good news. And so on the SCMP's 110th anniversary, it's fitting that the paper leads a campaign to celebrate the things that make Hong Kong what it is.
It's easy to complain on a day-to-day basis, to find fault with everything, really! This creates a cycle of negativity which then turns into a lifetime of misery. That's yucky - nobody wants that. And so through a series of debates, a charity auction, and an awards ceremony recognizing the city's unsung heroes, the SCMP leads the charge in focusing our energy towards the positive around us.
That's awesome.
The event went like clockwork, no hiccups or missteps or surprises.
The only thing I could have wished was for LGBT representation amongst Celebrating Hong Kong's ambassadors. All the while, I was wondering:
After the event, Greg and I zipped to Shore Steak to catch the tail end of our own event - the launch of The List Magazine's monthly GuestList Happy Hour. My girls, Charmaine and Running, had to manage the event by themselves whilst I was at the Celebrating Hong Kong launch. The main agenda was to introduce The List's new editor, Kate Springer, to the magazine's readers and advertisers.
It went without a hitch, too. Super proud of my girls! Of course I had to do the pack-up, but that's OK coz I got all the leftover Godiva bars (which I promptly gave away - I promise).
Many thanks to Troy Roberts and his fab team at Shore, and to Godiva!
PROMPTLY PASSED OUT AFTER A LATE-LATE DINNER OF GINORMOUS BURGER
WITH FAT CHIPS.
WITH KARLO, NICKNAMED KANGKANG -
PERFECTLY LOGICAL,
IF YOU'RE GAY & PINOY.
JAMES & JIMMY
MIKEE'S SWEET SPAGHETTI
"Sis, join us at my place for my birthday dinner on Friday," read a WhsatsApp from my dear friend, Mikee. "Kangkang is coming!"
Kangkang is Karlo Feril, whom Mikee and I went to high school with. Mikee and Kangkang belonged to a clique of gay boys who knew themselves well enough to be nothing else but fantabulous in a school run by strict Paulinian nuns.
I envied Kangkang and Co. They were loud and colourful and free.
Hard to imagine that there ever was a time I was frightened to be gay. But I've only really transformed into The Hyperactive Gay Boy™ in the last five years out of necessity. I had to create a public profile for myself to help validate Mr. Gay Hong Kong and my otherprojects in the LGBTcommunity. I thus became a multimedia whore. And I love being one!
Mikee and I became good friends soon after he moved to Hong Kong to manage restaurants for one of the biggest hospitality groups in the city. And I never really exchanged more than a few words with Kangkang until last night. It's fun to try and piece bits of each other's lives that, though parallel, haven't had a chance to intersect.
We drank tequila. We impersonated beauty queens. We recited lines from iconic Tagalog drama movies. We ate cake out of plastic cups. We sat in rapt attention as one of the boys extolled the virtues of poppers. And we practically inhaled Mikee's sweet spaghetti.
"What kind of sweetener did you use for the sauce," I asked Mikee. Each mouthful made every birthday party when I was a kid an ever more vivid memory.
YOU CAN STAND UNDER MY [RAINBOW] UMBRELLA, ELLA, ELA, EH EH.
IDAHOT CO-MC ABBY LEE WITH MR GAY HK BENJIE CARAIG
ACTIVIST AND COMMUNITY LEADER BILLY LEUNG (AND A CANDIDATE AT THE 2009 EDITION OF MR GAY HK)
ACTS AS HIS MUM'S TRANSLATOR.
BILLY'S MUM SAID:
"I MISSED OUT ON SO MUCH BEFORE BILLY CAME OUT. I'M MAKING UP FOR IT."
BENJIE, YOUNG ACTIVIST GEORGE, AND LAWYER MICHAEL VIDLER
L-R: HYPERACTIVE, MGHK TITLEHOLDERS HEIHEI AND BENJIE, AND MY CO-PRODUCER AD
PHOTO BY ANGIE PALMER
IDAHOT was once again held in the middle of Causeway Bay. I had my reservations about the location. We had trouble with the authorities two years ago. The rally was shut down during an interpretative dance number by high school students. The cops claimed our lack of the requisite entertainment license as the reason. I suspect the real reason to be complaints from shop owners who were panicked at the sheer density of pink and rainbow that descended on their precious commercial area. Hello! - we only make your place prettier just be hanging around!
So last year, we did the event at Chater Garden. It went great. The area is more contained, cleaner, safer. More families attended and the press had better access to the stage. This year, we returned to Causeway Bay - maybe to reclaim the experience, maybe to influence shoppers who wouldn't otherwise be exposed to an LGBT event, maybe to just be on the street.
Benjie, the current Mr Gay HK titleholder, spoke against bullying in all forms, at every stage of our lives. An entire squad of pink-clad boys stood behind him in support: Myself, 2012 1st runner-up Bridge Hudson, 2013 2nd runner-up Dickson Lau, 2011 Mr Gay HK Heihei Yau and my co-producer AD. We wore pink 'It's OK to be gay!' statement tees designed by Benjie himself, sales from which go towards the campaign against homophobic bullying in schools. (Buy it HERE.)
Activist Billy Leung, who competed in the very first edition of Mr Gay HK, acted as a translator for his mum. All the more serendipitous that we had a testimonial from a loving mother, on Mother's Day. Benjie presented a bouquet to Billy's mum afterwards.
Other notable community leaders who got up onstage were Les Peches founders Betty Grissoni and Abby Lee (who was also Reggie Ho's co-MC), first openly gay legislator Ray Chan, Cantopop legend Anthony Wong, lawyer Michael Vidler, plus many more.
My favourite moment from the event was when we all opened our rainbow umbrellas to signify the voices of the LGBT community demanding legal protection from discrimination in Hong Kong.
The tide of history is turning.
It's not merely OK to be gay; it's great to be gay.
FROM L-R
HEIHEI, MR GAY HK 2009
BENJIE, MR GAY HK 2012
JIMMY, MR GAY HK 2011
It's a rare treat to capture three of my Mr Gay Hong Kong winners in one photo. Rick, who won the very first edition in 2009, has since relocated to Atlanta. Heihei and Benjie are always here of course and have become quite the dynamic duo in the LGBT community. Jimmy, who won back in 2011, is busy with the international theatre circuit. But he's in Hong Kong for a bit before he takes off for his next gig in Singapore, so the boys took in a junk trip last weekend.
Few people know what it takes to own the Mr Gay Hong Kong title. Sure, you win it onstage on the one night you get judged on rounds of competition that include swimwear, formal wear and interview. But you own it through your work in the community for the rest of the year. I'm ecstatic that three of my boys get to hang out, even for just a hot second.
Benjie has hit the ground running, designing an IT'S OK TO BE GAY statement tee (as seen on the video below), producing MGHK TV webisodes with Heihei, and now, pioneering community involvement with the I AM ME project.
Benjie will be taking the IDAHOT stage today (3-5pm, behind Sogo in Causeway Bay) to speak out against bullying, discrimination, and all that dark, ugly, painful, unfair shit we still need to deal with.
I know we're meant to be gay, but this is the one time we're meant to get angry. It's 20 fucking 13. Let's get on with the programme, bitchiz!
Totally random message received from my best friend one rainy afternoon:
Rye Bautista
10 May 2013, 13:11 I decided we should start a vlog. Chiquitta + Hyperactive. Let's film our pilot today - hurry!
And just like that, a vlog was born - at Cafe Queen on Queen's Road, where else. So WELCOME to the first episode of SIP with La Chiquitta and The Hyperactive Gay Boy™!
We'll be serving up Showgirl-y sips and Hyperactive gulps of our beloved LGBT scene. Don't pace yourselves - just swallow.
SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST QUOTES THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY AND FEATUIRES MR GAY HONG KONG AS A CASE STUDY IN AN ARTICLE QUESTIONING WHETHER OR NOT HONG KONG IS MISSING OUT ON PINK TOURISM DOLLARS.
IT'S A FRIDAY MORNING AND MY LASHES ARE ALREADY TWITCHING FROM TOO MUCH HYPERACTIVE ENERGY! I AM PRANCING AWAY TO MEET ONE OF HONG KONG'S MOST POPULAR CELEBRITY BLOGGERS: THE HYPERACTIVE GAY BOY!
The fight for marriage equality is the hottest thing since a virgin twink's bum.
I'd love to get into it; I honestly would. At some point, I even considered posting that= sign as my Facebook profile pic. Only thing holding me back is seeing how heterosexuals have made a mess out of having had a good run with it.
I was looking into stats in Australia, being that Chris is moving to Canberra in a week. Wouldn't this move have been so much easier on us, I wondered, if we were married? Maybe not. In Australia, a third of marriages end up in divorce. 29% of Aussies don't even get married. Meanwhile, here we are gays, knocking on the wooden doors of this archaic institution, insisting to be let in.
Isn't marriage meant to be about love between two people? So why is it in reality, a hairy contract that involves the intimate interference of religion and the state? I can't imagine welcoming Julia Gillard or Pope Francis into my and Chris' bedroom. That'd be a buzzkill.
At least back in the medieval times, people were practical enough to see marriage as a means to consolidate wealth, territories, power, social status, etc. These days, we get all misty eyed thinking about that Vera Wang frock or that Armani tuxedo. Getting married is bloody expensive! It's has to be a production!
I still believe in marriage; I honestly do. My parents have an awesome one. My friends, Greg and Allen, have an awesome one, too. Clearly it works for some folks. I'm just not sure it'd work for me. I have a hard enough time putting a visa application together. All that paperwork! Makes my head spin. How much more if I had to put a marriage "together?" Aren't I committed enough? What more do I need, after 6 years of having been with the man I love?
I need - deserve! - the right to fail.
The right to say "I tried," rather than the lifetime torture of wondering what could have been if.
Cyndi Lauper cemented her place amongst pop culture's most celebrated LGBT rights champions with her hit single, True Colors. However it is Time After Time that's my enduring favourite. The poetic lyrics, the push-pull melodic tension and the song's general sentiment make it easy listening whatever your mood may be.
In this live acoustic version, Cyndi Lauper slows it down for a more melancholic, plaintive feel.
"Suitcase of memories" as lyrics suddenly sound much more loaded than the old cliche about emotional baggage. The addition of a violin knocks the bubblegum off this pop-py classic and replaces it with depth of a heartache, instead of (juvenile) heartbreak.
DING DONG THE WITCH IS DEAD.
THE WICKED WITCH IS DEAD.
Just last Christmas, Pope Benedict XVI denounced gay marriage as a "manipulation of nature."
Gee thanks, Scrooge.
The real "manipulation of nature" is forced celibacy in the Catholic priesthood. Just look at how screwed up the reputation of the Catholic church has become over screwed up priests who have preyed on our youngsters instead, and the screwed up cover-up job that ensued within the church's highest halls of power.
It's disgusting.
Priestly vestments clearly can't conceal human libido and natural need for companionship. What is instead clear is that the more the church enforces its outdated notion of "mortification of the flesh" amongst priests, the more putrid and rotten the body, mind and spirit become.
In his official statement about his upcoming retirement on the 28th of February, Benedict says "old age is beautiful." Fuck that. Look at him and how time - and his actions - have eaten him up. Many people grow old gracefully. He hasn't.
He is claiming old age; I claim good, old fashioned church power grab. He is finally unable to cope with his earlier bad decisions and he is now suffering some sort of cognitive dissonance. This is of course clear to anyone who wants to grab power; I have no doubt that cardinal opportunists (ha, ha) can smell fear and weakness and defeat - and opportunity! - from a mile away. That's a smell that even a thick blanket of frankincense can't unfortunately conceal.
It's convenient to accuse us gays of making the Catholic church an easy, favourite target. But listen. I grew up a good Catholic. I was educated in Catholic schools. I enjoyed singing in the choir, I loved the Psalms, and I still am a staunch believer in the power of prayer. But I also am a living, breathing human being who knows reality outside of church walls.
Change is a reality. You can't deny it. You'll lose if you do.
And this is Benedict's failure.
He has been, and is, unable to cope with the times.
He knows it.
Everyone around him knows it.
His retirement from the papacy is good riddance to bad rubbish.
My dear friend Chinno (or just Chi, coz that sounds way more fabulous) has reached the highest rank possible for a Boy Scout. In fact Chi was once named one of the Ten Outstanding Boy Scouts of the Philippines. BJ, our other shufatid (a more fabulous way of saying kapatid, or sister) and I delighted in teasing Chi endlessly about his "butch" Boy Scout past. But in truth, we were secretly proud of Chi.
Inside or outside of scouting, Chi has never been anything but himself - loud, frighteningly intelligent, charismatic, flamboyant. It was because of Chi that my love for beauty pageants became an obsession - an addiction that I have parlayed into eventually founding Mr. Gay Hong Kong.
The three of us - Chi, BJ and myself - spent many a nights laughing through Chi's re-enactment of things that happened in national jamborees. Curious adolescent boys were prone to bekbkek, we found out- and it didn't really matter whether a gay comrade was present. In fact, we suspected it was all the more fun. Chi also recalled a scout master who was particularly protective over those who were different. Scout master advised, "Whenever you feel like you're being judged for being different, give yourself a big hug and say - 'I am special, I am special.' "
That's why when I heard about the struggle that's tearing at the heart of the Boy Scouts of America, I had to laugh. On one side, you've got the BSA which is staunchly anti-gay - I mean, really? On the other side, you've got expert LGBT campaigners - many of them former Boy Scouts themselves - targeting the Scouts' corporate sponsorship. TIME Magazine reports that UPS Inc., the Intel Foundation and the Merck Company Foundation have together pulled a total of USD850,000 in response to the protest. This would never happen in the Philippines, mainly because such amount of funding is better spent feeding poor people or improving rural infrastructure - not supporting an archaic organization flagrantly promoting inequality.
This issue is so hot, even President Obama has jumped into the fray, urging the Boy Scouts to end the ban on gays.
Chi got to where he was with the Boy Scouts of the Philippines because of merit - a brash certainty that he is entitled, because he is capable. He is a leader. To the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, it had nothing to do about being straight or gay - although I suspect that Chi easily bulldozed any opposition with a charm offensive. Pinoys are just a loving lot. That sounds touchy-feely, but it's true. We're aware that every family has an LGBT member, and that's fine. And that includes the Boy Scouts of the Philippines.
The Boy Scouts of America would do well to learn the same.
