>Hugz<

This is the cover of Samson , another gay magazine published in Japan. Samson is focused on elder, chubbier gay adults when compared to other gay magazines in Japan, G-men or Badi. Pontaro is known to draw the covers for Samson for two years from 2003 to 2004. Above is the cover drawn more than 10 years ago. As you can see, he is very talented and skillful in drawing chubby characters. I am sorry that he seemed to stop contributing his talent to any gay magazines.

John Grant is an American singer-songwriter who came out some years ago. I came across his song, Glacier and I could detect something that I could call 'gay-themed' from the lyrics. And when I watched the promotion video of the song, I could understand it is actually about the pain that any gay person can relate to. Enjoy the video which covers many important queer scenes throughout culture and politics.

This is the 2nd collaboration towel by Massive and Jiraiya. The first one was like this. After the 1st one was sold out. I regretted not buying that. So this time I hurried and now I got the 2nd one on my bed right now.

Geography Club is an American coming-of-an-age queer cinema, which was released in 2013. It portrays young gay lovers, one of them is try to put his step forward by joining a support group and the other is try to remain closeted to sustain his status as captain in his soccer team. 'Geography Club' is actually a support group for lgbt teens, and they use that name because they expect the name itself could protect them form unwanted attention, because geography club sounds so boring. This movie is based on the book with the same title.

Lose Your Head is a German movie, which reminds me of Stranger by the Lake . Both of them were released in 2013. The main characters of both movies arrive at a new place(one to Berlin, the other to a deserted lake) to find a mysterious man with secrets. Even though both of them suspect that the mysterious man might be responsible for serious crime, each of them falls in love with him. And both of them put themselves in the same spot with the precedent victims. I am a type who cannot enjoy a movie fully, when the main character is not reasonable. I don't know why but even when I was still a student I could not enjoy any movie when the main character is not reasonable. For example, in the " Dancer in the Dark ", why doesn't Bjork turn to police or other authorities when her money was stolen??? Women are not born to be reasonable or what??? Is that what the directer, Lars von Trie wanted to say??? For the same reason, I felt uncomfortable when I watched &#

Recently I had chance to watch Musical Hedwig And the Angry Inch by Korean Cast. I did not expect much but the actor who played Hedwig was very charismatic. The other thing I noticed was that 99% of the audience are woman!! How could this be?? Maybe it is because women tend to feel less uncomfortable with drag queens than men do. Hedwig by Korean Cast has been run almost a decade, I heard.

(c) 山田参助(Yamada, Sansuke) In 2005, Sansuke Yamada drew all the covers for SAMSON , Japanese gay magazine. I ran into his works years ago but I did not know his name or anything about him. But as you see, he is very talented in drawing chubbies. He contributed many of his works to gay magazines but recently he has serialized his latest work, Areyo Hoshikuzu (あれよ星屑) through a major comic magazine. The first volume was published this April. It portrays lives of Japanese people right after World War II. (c) 山田参助 Some of his past works are compiled into some comic books like Wakasa De Mun Mun ( 若さでムンムン)  and  Yamada Sansuke no Muda na Teikou Yamemashou (山田参助の無駄な抵抗やめましょう), which are out of print.

As you see, the opening is acclaimed "Stranger by the Lake" by Alain Guiraudie. I watched "I Want Your Love" and "Stranger by the Lake" yesterday. It was a holiday in Korea for election.

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TLA Video is an online shopping mall which ships internationally with reasonable fare.  But it takes time to receive items. It took 3 weeks for delivery from US to Korea.  They sell DVDs, books and many other materials. But they don't ship some items like hardcover books etc.  They notify that they take no responsibility if the items leave American soil. And they also notify they are not responsible even if the items are seized during the custom procedure.  Whatever they provide things with cheaper fare than Amazon. 

Just like The Catcher in the Rye , the lead character moves around without any specific aims at all, throughout the movie. Actually I didn't recall why the narrator of the novel left his home or dorm in the first place. I read it more than a decade ago. Not like the novel, in this movie, the main character is gay played by a gay actor, Jonathan Groff(Kristoff in Frozen ). The IMDB describes the main character as "cocky." But I don't buy that. He was just hurt (maybe when he came out to his mother, her reaction was not what he had expected) and left everything he had and tried anything seemingly different. But things kept on being complicated when he didn't face his own sexuality and just turned away every time. In a sense, I cannot blame him for that.

This year, SELFF, Seoul LGBT Film Festival will be held form 4 June till 10 June. They did not notify the details yet in their website. But going to the Selff is an annual ritual for me and I am really looking forward to the festival. I will keep on eye on.

G.B.F. is an American film on a high school boy, Tanner. He was outed and out of sudden, targeted by three prom-queen-wannabees who want gay best friends to secure their throne. In some ways, this movie reminds me of  Mean Girls . But still I think this is hilarius and the script is quite good, even if not the best.

There have been movies dealing with the early 1980's when AIDS did not have its name. And the Band Played on , Longtime companion , and so on. The Normal Heart is another queer movie dealing with that era, based on the play of the same title. It has not been released in the theater yet. I look forward to watching it soon.

Date and Switch is an American queer movie. Two main characters, one in yellow polo shirts and the other one with hooded sweatshirt- are long-time friends and they promised to help each other lose virginity before their prom. And Matty, the one in yellow, came out to Michael, the one with hooded sweatshirt. Michael got confused even if he made up his mind to accept Matty as he is. And the way these two deal with the situation is the main story of this movie. It is funny that in usual queer movies, Michael is supposed to be gay but the movie is about how Michael reacts to and accept Matty's coming out. Michael and Matty made mistakes but they learned to deal with Matty's sexuality.

(C) 村田ポコ Muratapoco is another Japanese Bara Artist. Recently the work he contributed for AIDS awareness was posted as billboard in a gay-friendly area of Tokyo but it was censored because one of the characters was shirtless. What a shock.

(c) 熊八 Kumahachi is a talented Taiwanese bara artist. His works are so amazing and I was instantly fascinated. He seemed to sell his works as Doujinshi(self-published book).

De-Lovely is the movie portraying American composer and songwriter, Cole Porter . I don't know since when and from what I have had interest in him. Was it from a Monroe 's song? Or a Sinead O'Connor 's rendition of You Do Something to M e? Anyway I got a thing for him. When I watched this movie, I realized that he was very talented and loved, especially by his wife, Linda . But when I saw her embracing her husband's sexuality, I couldn't tell how to react to it. So this is real love? Friendship? Should I be moved by it?

Los Amantes Pasajeros is latest Almodovar film. A couple of months ago, I watched the trailer of this movie, in which 3 male flight attendants dance and lip-sync to dance music like queens. After that I longed to watch this film for months. The movie was run last year in many countries and even the title was released as DVD. But there is no sign of releasing in Korea.

1967-2014 Gone too soon. Rest in peace.