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Th 06-9-2001
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Pim Again
Saw the Oscar Wilde movie again last nite at dwh, with Stephen Fry as Wilde and gorgeous Jude Law as Bosie. There are quite a few similarities in Oscar- and Pim's character, just hope his carreer will not tumble down the same path though.
How I'm looking forward to a prime minister who's perfectly at ease in the company of the boys to his left, after ten years of the rather dull familyman Kok, I cannot tell you!
He sure is making his mark in dutch media right now. And things are looking good: he's reviewed pretty favorably by both right and leftwing press as well as all the in the middle, i.e. the lifestyle and professional/business press. If only this will keep up untill the elections next may.
Pim is called rightwing, but I think he's a middlemen. He's only outspoken about new immigrants with Islam background, and they did provoke Dutch gays in a big way last year. So I agree that limits should be set to what Islam or any other church can say in a tolerant society like ours.
Wow, if this does not have the looks of our stylish and authoritive future prime minister I don't know what does!
To make clear for all you foreigners what this is all about a few excerpts from one of his many interviews:
I think there are two reasons for the moderately positive reception I got in the press:First: Questions about foreigners live strongly in our society, but is kept out of the political debate.My arrival already now has made it plain that the gentlemens agreement of the old parties to keep this out of the debate will no longer stand. Secondly the press has a lot to win if I manage to make parliament less of a sleepy place. Mind you, I am prepared for the inevitable rebound: Soon the media will demand my head. Mentally I'm ready for that moment too; the press did train me in the past years; thanx guys!
The party I suggested myself to as their campaign leader will not get away with keeping the foreignersdebate out of the election. Period. If we cannot agree there it is over. Then I'l campaign under my own list. This country is full, sirs! In all major cities a majority is from another country. How is that going to integrate? Wat will remain of our national heritage? Nothing! Their culture will overshadow ours. That is why I declare war to Islam. Yes, do write it down: It should be fought the same way as communism in the last cold war. Not with forbidding them, but by a challenge and fight of their idieology. I want to know what is said in those mosques.
Translate that mess. I'm not saying close them down, get the imams out of the country, but you will not be allowed in this country to say from the pulpit that I am less than a pig. You will not be permitted to say that homo's are an inferiour kind of people. Neither will it be allowed to say that our women with the way they work and manage families are less then prostitutes. Period. This is not a small Dutch issue; that campaign should be picked up all over Europe. I'm in no way out for an armed fight, but the ideology must be tacled. Islam belongs in the mosque and nowhere else. Am I a racist? Where does that come from: I have nothing with xenofobia. That is an attempt of caractermurder. Am I a populist? At least I have less problems with that term, but I'm not going for gut-sentiments; I am an intellectual pur sang. And to make a leftwing statement:
I think far to many governement tasks have been privatised. In energy the same disasters are on the horizon as California has now. I can get PvdA (labour) and CDA (christian democrates) electorate behind me. I'd love to see CDA win the elections, I was formed in catholic schools, it's my roots. I agree with their agenda a lot, but their presentation has not changed for 50 years. They're part of the political establishment I want to defeat. I'd like to make a CDA-VVD (liberals) governement possible. In that setup the only option open for prime minister would be, right, me !
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Th 06-9-2001
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Pfewww
Got into a bit of a fight with a guy at dwh tonite. I started off with defending him against Peter Schenkeveld, who I thought from a distance was drunk and atacking him without reason. But I found out there was serious reason;
Fundamental reason. The new gay generation can have all the credit they want from me; we even support them financially, but it all ends the very moment when they utter intolerable words. This guy actually said thet his was a superiour kind of love. Not because it was gay love, but because it was young and honest love and what we, the older generation held as love was just a degenerate kind of sex crave and far below his superiour kind of true love. The conversation really went on like this, and because I had respected the guy earlier on, because he is a great guitarplayer (besides the fact that he was pretty good lookin) it really hurt to find that I agreed with Peter K, who gets pretty drunk pretty often, and although pretty alcohol dazed, can in situations like this descriminate razorsharp between your ordinary stupid argument and fundamental differences of opinion.
I hope we're not getting back into the gay generation wars here, even less into the gay internal dwh-wars, as they will destroy only, Coen warned me for that too tonite: he said the best option was to organise a genuine fuck party, with special codes, the lenghth and width of which he did not wexplain as yet. Oh god: I should not try to write this with a buzzed mind of my own. It wil not make the slightest bit of sense tomorrow. But somewhere here lays the fundamental problem of gay culture for the next decade, so I'm happy it's in my pc now.
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Fr 31-8-2001
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Trash and darkroom photoshooting
Went to Megatrash last saturday. Supposed to be THE party for the serious crowd. Well It had a few really good things, like DJ David the absolute ruler of gay danceparties and alltime favorite of Wasdag dj Coen, The fantastic idea of having the main darkroom area underneath the stage, where also , as quite usual, the SUB-soundsystem lives, and alive it was: How nice to have subsound vibrating your belly and dick long before anybody actually touches them. For the rest, It does not match the old Trash at the "Oostelijke Handelskade" warehouse. The Venue now is a Hall, well out of the city with (super organised) busses to move the crowd there. But a place that is set up for your average major danceparty does not necessairily make a good gay partyvenue. It has a spacious luxury-entrance, nice wardrobe, good bars, good soundsystem, the obligatory moving lights. But those thing can be found all over the country: All the staff was straight; friendly, adequate, but straight. They were assisted by Trava's running around as hosteses, but it just did not make it. Also the special heavy sex area's looked quite lost in the huge space. It took like forever before action there slowly flared up (around 3 AM) I liked the dorm area, with rows of beds. The special torture spaces were largely populated with guys invited by the organisers, better than nothing, but giving a show rather than having fun. The dancing peeked at around 3 with (I guess) about a 1000 people on the dancefloor. The people most at ease in the space were the trava's and the professional strippers. Boy, were they cutefaced, cutechested, cuteassed, cutepackaged! The mixed trava-strippers-audience photo/videoshoot sessions were really something extra: surprisingly well equipped, really professional, again the strippers there doing great in relaxing, smoothing, enhancing.
All in all it just is not the same as the parties organised 10 years ago at the Westergasfabriek or the Barendssilobuilding at Westerdokdijk, nor the old Trash. Give us an old building ousite of town that has a romantic atmosphere, can be highlighted by simple industrial lights, has queer staff, like Snax-Ostgut Berlin, Pity Amsterdam does not have so many great empty old buildings to choose from. Maybe we do need a recession after all? Well, maybe not!
The fotoshoot inspires me to go to Vagevuur's first exhibitionist partie coming friday. There everybody having a problem with vids and photo's of his sexual activities shown in public or print is best advised to keep clear. I do not worry too much about that; just hope enough others think the same, or else there will be a lot of people behind cams and nobody in front.
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Fr 31-8-2001
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time to get into politics
What is in the news in the Netherlands today, apart from the fact that our biggest party has chosen a new election leader, after our prime minister Willem Kok (not my old friend of the male porn drawings) announced he's not going for re-election. Another guy who announced he will be available for the job of prime minister is professor Pim Fortuyn.  | This guy is known till now as a very cleaver businessman, funny debater, active publisher/columnists. So even if he has not made clear under wich partyflag he'll enter into the political arena (it may even be under his own name), he's bound to get quite a few seats. I for one am going to vote for him, may even join his party/list. even political opponents look forward to |
the inevitable spicing up of our drab level of debating in parliament.
One of the issues only he can tacle is the ILLEGALISATION of POPPERS, that our fine minister of health, Mrs Borst announced yesterday. What is also pretty remarkable is not that our friend Pim is openly gay, (we have quite a few gay parliamentarians), but that he is one of my buddies in the good old darkroomactivities. He has been a topic here in log entry 09-02-2000 and log entry 07-12-2000. So yes it is true, wherever he sticks his nose, he stirrs up things. I like and respect him for that, but apparantly Richard, Shaft manager, thinks otherwise. But then, he will never be a publisher, judging the looks of the notoriously unnavigatable shaft website.
To get to the point:
Why oh why does a party-fun-enhancer that has been freely available in our country for over 3 decades, and that the gay community on its own has perfectly been able to control, all of a sudden be forbidden. We all know the risks/limitations of poppers. Until now they do (if it is not combined with other drugs) not exeed a somewhat raised heartbeat and a splitting headache, which, again, may just as well have been caused by the alcohol consumed. If cigarettes, consumption of which consequences are proved lethal, are to remain legal, then so should poppers. And, moving them to the forbidden department will make it even harder to discriminate between really more dangerous party enhancements like Extacy, Ketamine, GHB and coke that on their own and through impairing good judgement are a far greater danger for gay men's health.
Implementation of the ruling will probably go just as far as dutch handling of the sales of Hash.
It will disappear from the top shelves to the fridge around the back. And prices will go up, as our gay horeca friends will calculate the added risks. I'm looking forward to the fantastic solution that the notoriously creative Dutch merchants will come up with.
While Pim is on his soapbox in parliament he can just as well tacle the other great injustice I've written about before (6-8-2001), the Amsterdam ruling illegalizing dropping your pants when floating though the canals on the gay pride parade.
All homo's find that a show highlight, especially when done expertly by the well endowed/proportioned boys of Cockring and Trash. Granted, it is in the open air, but we are not forcing anybody to attend the event and people living at the canal should be able to close curtains or look the other way for two hours a year. Why else do they live in the city that claimed to be the most tolerant in the world?
If they want to be left in peace why do they not move to Pijnacker, Purmerend, Pieterburen, Pikveld? Mind you, I'm not saying everybody should undress: lot's of people are well advised to keep their package packaged. But we are losing our reputation for tolerance FAST to cities like Köln, Berlin and München, where they could'nt care less if you undress.
I'm really sick of people not familiair with detailed goings-on that from behind their scruffy desks keep sticking their ugly nose in our culture. If only they would make a detailed study first . . . but then they would be seeing things they'd rather not see . .
how tiring !
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Mo 27-8-2001
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end of summer
Always have this cazy sentimental feeling and awareness of how short life is at this time of year:
Owee behind us, my birthday too, nothing left to keep me from trying to focus on the goals ahead for the next season: Sorting the work administration; trying to get the home improvements going that I should have set in motion months ago but left hanging in mid air because there were so many parties to attend, friends to visit, and summer has plenty of time . . .
well, it has not!
It's over before you know it and after all the outside dinners and swims in the canal in front of the house thunderstorms last night cleared up the heatwave we had here for the past weeks, so there are no more excuses. I have to work that lazy ass of me again.
Owee always leaves me thinking what are we to do with gay culture: Is it still worth it?
New Generations keep emerging, but each year it seems harder to figure out what drives them. How to reach the inner braincells that will eventually break the family morals of the adolescent gay boys and urge them on their knees to worship other boys dicks and asses and be at ease with that.
We've been thinking of stopping the Laundryday at it's peak on the day of its first lustrum this december, but dicided against that. It is still the only shortcut-option open to students for self-concious-positive-nondegrading experience of actual gay sex in our city and thus indispensible. We now plan to have a performance of APUT theater at Flora the theater here to celebrate our lustrum.
We are somehow not getting across in our educational job of making plain that gay sex is not a thing to keep secret, dark, degrading. That we are entitled to have other rules and regulations that really respect and tolerate our culture. That we have a right to stand on a boat in a canal in Amsterdam and show our dick. That anybody who has something against that does not have to watch; we are not shoving it down their throat! There lies our limit: We shove it where it is appreciated! It is just is too beautiful to waist it on people who do not respect our bodies, our lifestyle, our inner values. Why was it so much simpler for us in the seventies to dive into the vibrating queer culture like fish into water, feeling: this is where I belong. We cannot wait untill the next revolutionary generation comes along to do away with the sleepy culture we have now. That is why we'll put on "Aardige jongens", a 1975 Delft Queer Theater project, on our movie night in september. Just to show how much fun we had flaunting it in the seventies . . . that is enough preaching for today
for this whole year I guess . . .
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Fr 17-8-2001
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Labyrint der Lage Lusten
Coming monday the OWee is here again. Although I have decided to quit that job
more then once I find myself participating again. No young generation waiting in the wings to take over; in fact nobody under 25 in sight, period. This time my only involvement is in
the Monday Laundryday part of it. I just finished the soundscape that will deliver chills down your spine
for the hour this show of sexual deviant acts is running.
 With Camouflage material and Fencing we will make our
good old dwh building into a maze where innocent new students can peek at a few things they may never get into.
All of it presented in an amusement park, no involvement required (if you do not want to) way. Even the old
licht-computer is running again to enhance the atmosphere with slowfading colorchanges. The now sceduled acts will comprise bondage,
 flogging, shaving, dog treatment in a cage, a mudsession and we
also have a brandnew sling in operation which will be manned by a duo for the whole time.
We allways warn that people should not have too high an expectancy of the numbers of students coming in. It is best just to see this whole endeavour as a fun thing for the participants. But we have been surprised in the past: Last year we had a group of 4 straight students who after reading about the bareass danceparty decided: This we must see! They did and never left until closing time. They even took their pants down, although we do not require that of the 1st year students. They were afraid of hanging their pants in the wardrobe though. Instead they walked around, even danced with their pants on their ankles. This is a true story, you can verify it with other Laundry-team-members. I'm very much looking forward to what may happen this time. And will report on the proceedings next week.
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Th 16-8-2001
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Berlin revisited
Went back to Berlin with Tom last week, not for work this time, but for pleasure.
As it was mid august and love- and gay pride parades were returned to memories
the citie had a great quietness. Berlin always has an extremely relaxed atmosphere, but
in late summer, when it is not too hot it can become a true oasis of piece.
Wow, how did that come out of my mouth; uhm, fingers!
back to basicks (?¿) now.
No snaxparty at Ostgut in the week I was there, that also would have filled the city to gay-extreme capacity.
Just "DAnce with the Aliens" and guess who was dj-ing there?
 yeah you recognise him too
but who was he now . . . No, let me guess . . .
So you've forgotten about him, although he had the most gorgeous body
of the whole lot. Let me just not keep you in suspence any longer, it's Howard, now you remember? Still nothing in those braincells?
He was in that group with a certain Gary Barlow, and that cuty called Marc Owen, and then there is that other guy nobody ever heard of since, Robbie Williams: Yeah now you remember; he was the only awesome dancer of Take That, Howard Donald.
He does look a whole lot better now, matured, the dreadlocks gone. Just a nice cleancut dj doing a great job; only a bit loud, or is that me getting old. Guess so. In the separated part of the building the lab-boys run a bit quieter operation, with the same super pa system though.
I went there the next evening.I do have to talk a bit about the main theme of this party, but it does put quite a few people off, so I'f you're one of them, do not click this link. We will just continue here on a slightly lighter tone:
Other celebs I met: not much, just that former keyboardplayer of Bronski Beat. Who also was at the première of Michael Laub's opening show for the Berliner "Tanz im August" festival. (A good show by the way, the first dance piece I liked for a long time). Seem to have met most of Jimmy Sommerville's entourage over the past years, like the girl with the low voice he duetted with in
"Don't leave me this way". hat was at a festival in Glasgow. At an Aids benifit in Hannover I partied with two of his dancers and his manageress in his hotelroom. Jimmy never was present on those occasions. He seems mostly to take off after shows to do some private partying; a lot like me I would say.
on the classic gay male art I studied while in Berlin I have made a special page reporting on the Caravagio exhibition.
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first half of 2001
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It's all here
if you got the time
read on . . .
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