Casual in Istanbul

Nico & Adrian celebrates Bastille Day in NYC with a tribute party to Préf Magazine and photographer Joe Oppedisano on July 14th at Crobar.

This hotly anticipated annual event combines the naughtiness of burlesque and the razzle-dazzle of Broadway and has been a smashing success since its inception in 1992. Created by Jerry Mitchell, the event features the hottest male and female dancers on Broadway and has become one of Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS' signature events.This year’s show was themed “New York Strip” and roughly followed the travels of “Chip and Chip” (Barret Foa from AVENUE Q and Andrew Rannells from HAIRPSRAY), a young gay couple from Idaho who were visiting NYC for the first time. Their adventure started with a tutorial from sassy diner waitress Gina (played by DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS’ Sara Gettlefinger) on the culinary pleasures of eating out in the Big Apple, complete with a living menu of spectacular “Daily Special” Showgirls.“The Chips” were aided in their attempt to find their way to Roseland for BROADWAY BARES by celebrity guests including Fran Drescher, Alan Cumming, Mahagony and THE JERSEY BOYS’ John Lloyd Young, J. Robert Spencer, Daniel Reichard and Dominic Nolti. Mario Cantone finally brought the boys to Roseland and concluded the show with “ New York, New York as the evening’s finale. Other celebrities who appeared included Marisa Jaret Winouker in the fashion show featured in the “Transit Strike” number and TARZAN’s Josh Strickland being stripped by an ensemble of female construction workers in “Construct This.”

Highlights of the night included hot firefighters taking it off aided by a chorus of female “flames”, the aerial brilliance of “The Living Art of Armando” in the Studio 54 section and the “Rock-Hard-Ettes” precision strip which ended with a cannon blasting each of them to the ground. The stand-out performance of the night was special guest Cyndi Lauper, who stopped the show with her rendition of “True Colors”, complete with a surprise trenchcoat flash to the audience.At the end of each show, the dancers stayed on stage for the “rotation” where audience members tipped a total of $22,836 helping to push the evenings grand total to a record-breaking $559,500.
Wanna see some Behind the Scenes footage? Click here to watch Backstage at Broadway Bares 16
Thanks to our friend Lestat for letting us know about this event...

Gay Prides everywhere !We are trying to catch up every single one around the world via internet and saw tons of pics and videos but this one rocks!! Well after all this is Paris.Steph & Alek are now intercontinental bloggers and after breath taking LA Pride , they're back in Paris for the pride...

The best gay clubs and parites together : Loveball European Gay Clubbing Festival. This is the second edition , the first one was in Brussels in November. 11 different events including parties , brunches , pool parties and more in our favorite city Barcelona. We hope we can be there too(sigh).And after seeing the cute little bartender in the photos from Brussels , we felt really sorry for missing the first one also...

Frameline30: SF Intl LGBT Film Festival
Celebrating thirty years of revolutionary film, June 15-25, 2006. The longest running, largest and most widely recognized LGBT film exhibition event in the world. www.frameline.org 

Frameline’s Persistent Vision Conference: Envisioning the future of queer media arts, June 19-22, 2006. www.pv2006.org

We'd really love to be there for the festival and for the beautiful San Francisco!Only we can do for now is to say "have fun" to the people around the area who could make it...

Tonight is the night! We'll be at the opening ceremony of 25th International Istanbul Film Festival.And the guest of honour is Alain Delon and he'll be awarded with a special Lifetime Accomplishment Award!We are really excited to see him in person finally. This will be his first time in Turkey. Especially Mehmet is extremely excited because of his obsession to Alain Delon since his childhood(by the way , he's one of the best Alain Delon collectors in the world...yes we have a room almost filled with AD stuff!).Well we need to go now , we have a date with the most beautiful man on the world tonite...See you guys ;)
Related :: The Most Beautiful Man of the World

Every year since 1640 Turkey’s best wrestlers – men and boys – have gathered for their national championships on a grassy field near the capitol of the old Ottoman Empire (Edirne). The tournament is called “Kirkpinar,” or “Forty Springs,” in honor of a 17th Century wrestling  legend.Nearly 1,000 barefoot athletes compete, oiled up and stripped to the waist. The all-out style and the oiled trunks go back to the world-famous Janissaries, an elite fraternity of body guards to the Imperial Sultans. The modern stadium is located on the former site of the Sultan’s palace, and Turkey’s president crowns the champions.For three days the field is crowded with simultaneous matches in eleven divisions, ranging from school kids to forty-year-old masters. The sun is hot, but the fights are long.(Source)

Earlier , we've made a post about A Turkish Wrestler bringing a suit against British photographer Terry George. For this post we've gotten some accusing comments and e-mails for betraying our traditional/national sport and introducing the Turkish wrestlers as gay people to the world! Well all we tried to say was this is an "eye-candy sport" for gay men. Just look at these pictures and tell us we're wrong!


And have you ever wondered what do they do at home?? After the jump...

Less then 3 hours to the ceremony...Our hearts go with Brokeback Mountain , Transamerica and Crash...We'll see...
Our blogmates Josh and Josh will blog the awards live!...don't miss that!

CASUAL UPDATE

Well guys , it's over and here is what we think about the winners...

Gustavo Santaolalla's great music  , Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana's screenplay and Ang Lee's fabulous directing got what they deserve...How about Jake's phenomenal performence?? We think he should also get an Oscar! And the speech of Ang Lee...he thanked everyone , even every single Chinese on this planet , but not a single word for Heath and Jake?!

Crash was one of the best movies we've seen last year and our second choice for the Best Motion Picture award.And the moment Jack Nicholson annonced the winner the happiness on cute Ryan Phillippe's face was worth everything.We almost forgot about how much we wanted to see the statuette in BBM Producers' hand!

We don't see the movie yet so no idea if Philip Seymour Hoffman was that good. But we read lots of good reviews from the critics...

No idea about this one either...if Reese was half good as Felicity Huffmann then she deserved the Oscar.

This was Jake's...no comment.

Rachel is beautiful and a very good actress.We first saw her in I Want You and adored her.

What the...?! We hated the song or whatever it is...

Well well , he's been dumped after fifty years. Barbie left him for a young CaliBoy called "Blaine". First he felt terrible but hey he might be old-fashioned but he has the money. He decided for a makeover. After a series of plastic surgery and a complete brand new wardrobe from a Hollywood celebrity stylist Phillip Bloch voila...he's a hunk! Now he's back for revenge. Actually guys this is a sad story and the theme song for this story is "I will Survive".
Hey Ken , here's a hint man...first you need to seduce Blaine , and test if he's good in bed. Show that bitch you're now hotter than her. You have too many choices after Blaine...like My Scene boys or Blaine's buddy Steven...LOL

!f istanbul Unveils Top-Notch Film Line-up for 5th Anniversary in February
From Madonna's latest film to Sundance winners, Oscar nominees and rare visual treasures, the !f Istanbul / AFM International Independent Film Festival celebrates its fifth anniversary with a bang this year between February 16 and 26th, 2006.!f features a total 50 films, grouped into different sections designed to highlight new trends in cinema.
Popular !f themes returning this year include Rainbow Films, a collection of award-winning recent gay and lesbian films; Insomnia serving up the Asian-style horror; and, sponsored by gnçtrkcll, Fantastic, featuring the best of recent animation and genre-breaking fantastic films including the much-awaited Quay Brothers feature The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes and Buffy creator Joss Whedon's debut feature Serenity.
As always, !f maintains a political edge with Insiders/Outsiders, highlighting stories from the centers of power as well as those who are on the margins. The section includes multiple award-winning Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, a jaw-dropping chronicle of the Enron scandal, and the much talked-about portrayal of racism in the UK, A Way of Life.
From acclaimed Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki to pop icon Madonna's latest film, the latest LA dance craze 'krumping' to the Broadway hit Rent,  the brand-new Express Yourself! section seeks to capture the creative process on film. These films will have you dancing and clapping in your seats! To celebrate the festival's fifth anniversary, !f-Cholic is a special one-time selection of films that capture the !f spirit in both form and content. These include the DJ mockumentary Its All Gone Pete Tong,  Mutual Appreciation by Andrew Bujalski, whom critics have called a new Jim Jarmusch, Thailand's answer to Amelie, Citizen Dog, and this year's word-of-mouth sensation What the Bleep do We Know?!. 
The festival's backbone is the Hit Films section, which includes the latest titles from acclaimed independent directors, as well as award-winning recent festival favourites. Films not to miss include Miranda July's Cannes winning debut feature Me and You and Everyone We Know, Duncan Tucker's Transamerica featuring Golden Globe winner Felicity Huffman, Nine Lives with a stellar female cast of Sissy Spacek, Holly Hunter and Robin Wright Penn, Sundance winner The Squid and the Whale, Phil Morrison's American treasure Junebug, the new film version of Mel brooks' much-loved The Producers and many more.
Well wish we could see all of them but unfortunately we're gonna miss most of them during work hours...some of our choices will be : Transamerica , Sugar , SummerStorm , Twelve and Holding , A Different Story , I'm Going to Tell You A Secret...

Well , it's been a long time since our last post because of some tecnical problems with IE! Now we feel better with FireFox and look what we've found!! A contest for the sexiest football player in Belgium ; we saw several nominees , but picked this one. Mr. Van Damme...don't know if he is related with Jean-Claude Van Damme ; in our opinion , he's the luckiest nominee of this contest with his sock.

Sabancı University's Sakıp Sabancı Museum is hosting an exhibition of works by Pablo Picasso, one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century. Picasso in Istanbul will be the first major exhibition devoted to a western artist to be held in Turkey, with 135 paintings covering every period of his work. The exhibition brings together works from the Picasso Museums in Paris and Barcelona, Lille Modern Art Museum, Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso para el Arte (FABA), and the family collections, selected by Picasso's grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso. In addition, the exhibition will feature photographs of the artist taken by famous photographers.

Just Go There Daily and Click The Yellow Button For Free !

A Turkish Model; Tolgahan Sayisman has won this year's Manhunt in South Korea. He's 24 , a graduate student and a model in Turkey ,France and Italy. After winning the Manhunt he signed for Mercedes-Benz/Asia add campaign. No more words , just look at the hotties around the world...

22 October 2005 the great 50th anniversary show for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC), called Congratulations will be held in Forum Copenhagen.
14 popular songs from earlier years of ESC has been selected to be performed. 10 of the songs has been chosen by fans from all over Europe and finally 4 songs has gotten a wildcard from the Eurovision Song Contest Reference Group.
The show will be broadcast to more than 25 countries all over Europe, and during the night the European viewers will televote to choose the most popular song of the last 50 years of Eurovision Song Contests.The original videos of the 14 shortlisted songs will be shown, complemented by dancers, lightshows and other visual effects on stage.

The songs and the performers are huge!! Such as ABBA , Céline Dion , Cliff Richard , Helena Paparizou , Johnny Logan and Dana International...and Sertab Erener (Winner of ESC 2003)of course with her song "Everyway That I Can". 

Sertab is Turkey's #1 female vocal who is a collorature soprano. Her voice is sweet but strong. Besides the ESC success , she has some international works as a Sony International artist with Voice Male and Ricky Martin (Private Emotion duet)

We'll watch the show live on October 22nd , and vote for her...

Every Way That I Can MV

Lots of talk about him nowadays. About his past in Bel Ami , his part in Müller commercial as an acrobat and his participation in Big Brother's Czech version...Not only breaking his contract with Bel Ami , by doing all that things ; he endangered his and his Bel Ami fellow models' privacy.

He confessed that he's ashamed of his porn past but was seen at Pride in San Francisco (June 2005) at the Falcon/Colt booth auctioning off underwear.Some people thinks that he's a bit paranoid and some people supports him...well who knows who's right?!

Come on people...he's just a 23 year-old confused kid. Don't be too hard on him.He's a bit greedy and he really wants to be a celebrity like every kid wants. But that's it , it's not a big deal.After his confession on Big Brother , Müller pulled the spot off the air , and it's been said that Czech people doesn't want to watch a gay porn star on TV...so it's quite obvious that he is left with nothing to go back to, unless Bel-Ami want him again. But hey! he's just 23 and he has time to do something else , he has a chance to try , to start from scratch.

More news hotties from Big Brother...

Ernest Hemingway, one of the prominent figures of the 21st century literature, became source of inspiration for one of the works exhibited in the 9th International Istanbul Biennale.

While Hemingway highlighted his fear of death in some of his books, he ended his life by shooting himself in 1961. Setting off from the question, “What kind of smell may express his paradoxical identity?” Bulgarian origin artist Daniel Bozhkov produced a perfume of which its dominant smell is “musk”. The name of the perfume meaning powerful, independent, but turbulent and sensitive is “Eau d’Ernest” and it is marketed under the slogan “elegance in difficulty”.

Bozhkov, combining the smell culture of the Ottoman period with today’s world in terms of the cultural and political atmosphere of 1920’s, explains the genesis of the project: “I had come to Istanbul to participate in the Biennial in 2003 and stayed in the Great London Hotel which had a big influence on me. Then, I learned that Hemingway also stayed in this hotel while he was a war reporter for the Toronto Daily Star newspaper in 1922. While I was staying in the hotel, the world was tense as well as in that period. I was interested in designing something to reflect the emotional state of that lonely man who was under pressure.” The artist recorded hundreds of Hemingway look-alikes a competition held in Key West in Florida every July and used the images for his advertising film.

The perfume will be launched on the market after the biennial, and has passed all clichés of the capitalist system. All processes like designing the bottle, writing the story of smell, shooting the film of the story and working with a musician have been realized. The situation carries the art and art work being to the verge of turning into a commercial object; however, the most delicate part of the issue says: “A promotional campaign composed of banner and ad films may direct people to think in that manner. But, when reading the notes in bottle’s label, they will understand this is not the same; because, they will find a complex and deep text.”

Those who want to find Hemingway’s both masculine and fragile personality in the perfume including anise and basil beside musk should visit Antrepo Number 5 until October 5. Visitors will be able to watch the ad film showing a young Ernest drinking a cup of Turkish coffee writes notes in the Great London Hotel lobby in 1922 and can buy the perfume at the biennial area.

Turkey’s biggest open air festival Rock’n Coke Music Festival takes place at Hezarfen Airfield on September 2nd, 3rd and 4th by the support of The Coca-Cola Company as the main sponsor.
With its content, musical vision and its structuring, Rock’n Coke stands alone among the other events in Turkey.Open air music events have become an integral part of many cultures in the world and the main field of attraction for the majority of population, especially for the younger population Bearing this simple fact in mind, Rock’n Coke Music Festival’s prior goal is to stimulate this “global” tradition in Turkey and provide a common platform for a wide range of people. Rock’n Coke Music Festival, where music is the basic motivation, aims to offer an alternative life experience to 50.000 people for two full days and to build a cultural and artistic town.

This is the 2nd Rock'n Coke in Istanbul.This year the program is very nice...powerful bands such as The Cure , Apocalyptica , Offspring and Skin is gonna rock the festival area...but again we'll be in España...LOL!

World's most famoust flamenco dancer and choreographer Joaquin Cortes will be in Harbiye Open Air Theatre in Istanbul on 10 September, 2005. Cortes will perform his new show called "Mi Soledad - My Loneliness".

We are sorry , we couldn't see your show this time...but we have a good excuse ; we'll be in España!

Surely that doesn't change the fact that you're pure adrenaline and extremely hot. We'll catch you up next time hunk.

The 23rd Universiade 2005, Izmir, one of the biggest sports organizations in the world, started with a gigantic show on Thursday, August 11th 2005, at 19:15, at the Atatürk Stadium.

The name of the cultural performance is“Anatolia, the land where the sun rises” and the main theme of the performance is The Anatolian Civilizations and the outstanding personalities and features of Anatolian Culture. The show, which took place at the Atatürk Stadium, broadcasted to the world audience through live transmission.

We were waiting the games impatiently to be able to see hot college boys around. First impressions are O.K. We saw a water polo game and a diving training. Looking forward to see more swimming suits.

Hot guys from Germany, Norway, Hungary, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and Denmark are coming to Palm Springs over Columbus Day Weekend, October 7-9, 2005, to compete with Mr.Gay 2006 USA winner in the Mr. Gay International Competition. Finalist from Germany is actually from Turkey!! Suat Bahceci ; a 19 years-old student who is also a model , dancer , spinning instructor and a waiter is going to represent Germany and show everything(!) he has to win the competition! Via OhLaLaParis