Even more totally too fucking cool news:

Possible Shakespearean theater found in London

LONDON - The theater where "The Merchant of Venice" and "Romeo and Juliet" likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday.

The possible foundations of what is known as simply, The Theatre, were unearthed by builders excavating the site — a vacant garage — for another structure. Museum archaeologists were called to the location to make sure nothing was destroyed, and had a eureka moment.

(complete article here.)

From Thaddeus Rutkowski in NYC:

My workshop “Generating Fiction” will begin on Monday evening, Sept. 8, at The Writer's Voice of the West Side YMCA. The class will include brief exercises and detailed, constructive discussion of works-in-progress. Creative nonfiction and experimental approaches are welcome. Open to everyone. Eight meetings. Register online at www.ymcanyc.org or in person at the front registration desk at 5 West 63rd Street (open till 11 p.m.). Registration opens for Y members on Aug. 18, the following week for nonmembers. Financial aid is available, but you must apply ASAP. For info, call Lily Motta at (212) 875-4124. I can also give you instructions for online registration or send you a financial aid application form.

Thad Rutkowski
www.thaddeusrutkowski.com

Sure you can, gang!!!

Check out this link and thank god if you live in one of these totally cool fucking cities!! (I do!!)

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/btm/feature/2008/08/06/patti_smith/index.html

I can't fucking wait!

From Darklady:

Radio Dentata Launches Uncensored “Radio with Teeth”

FULL FRONTAL LOBE, USA – RadioDentata.com is on the air – and breathing
life and common sense into talk radio.

Featuring 24/7 totally uncensored interviews, political rants, def
poetry, site reviews, art, literature, sex, soul, and rock-n-roll, the
estrogen-fueled minds behind Radio Dentata are on a mission to empower
adults – including those fortunate enough to be female.

Hosts like Darklady, Essen Em, and the ex-priest known as Dr. Dick speak
openly and honestly on matters sexual and political because Radio
Dentata’s founders believe that adults deserve to be talked to like
adults. As the website reminds, “Just because it’s for adults, doesn’t
mean it’s porn.”

RadioDentata.com blurs the lines between the mainstream and the
pornographic, broadcasting from an audio wonderland where creativity and
passion meet reason and articulation; a world where “all things in life
are erotic -- and the Erotic is Power.”

Find out for yourself at www.RadioDentata.com.

To advertise, have your photography or music featured, or propose a show
concept, contact Shane@RadioDentata.com

From Suspect Thoughts Press in California:

Ian and Greg have decided to shutter the amazing and beautiful Suspect Thoughts Books, leave Cleveland, and return to their beloved Northern California.

We loved having the store and met some wonderful folks in Cleveland. We’ll miss you! It was a great experience but we both felt too homesick to continue to try and settle in… Yes, it was a mighty quick turnaround, but those of you that know us know that we, right or wrong, jump headfirst into adventures that we, for whatever reason, feel we need to jump headfirst into. We had no way to know how much the move cost us until after it happened… Mrs. Wharton has more in her section.

Our mailing address is the same as before we moved to the Rust Belt:

Suspect Thoughts Press
2215-R Market Street #544
San Francisco, CA 94114-1612

*** Coming in August: Invert(e) #1 ***

Invert(e):
flagrantly queer culture, politics, sex, and dish - #1
Greg Wharton and Ian Philips, Eds.
6x9, 120 Pages, Trade Paper, Queer Studies/Popular Culture
ISBN-10: 0-9789023-3-5, ISBN-13: 978-0-9789023-3-9
Suspect Thoughts Press

Invert(e) #1 includes conversations between filmmakers, artists, authors, and activists; opinionated nonacademic essays; and assorted cutting-edge artwork, poetry, and memoir; all focused on popular culture, politics, and sex.

Contributors include April Anthony, Stephen Beachy, Dodie Bellamy, S. Bear Bergman, Tina D’Elia, David Ellingsen, Marcus Ewert, Nicole J. Georges, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Glatzer, Mary Guzman, Kevin Killian, Matty Lee, Ali Liebegott, Shane Luitjens, Marshall Moore, Shailja Patel, Brian Pera, Kirk Read, Cristy C. Road, Michael V. Smith, Rob Stephenson, horehound stillpoint, Linda Switzer, Mattilda aka Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Jeffery Walls, Wash Westmoreland, Ed Wolf, and Emanuel Xavier.

Check out all the rest of the Suspect Thoughts Press news and also check out their new web site design at:

suspectthoughts.com.

from Carol Queen and the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco:

Hi everyone!

We're having a Drag Swap on August 16 (new date -- it was going to be this Sunday but we've postponed it to get the word out farther and wider)! Clean out your closet, or come fill it up with new stuff! Later that night we'll celebrate last year's Best of the Bay for our Erotic Reading Circle with a public reading. And we got another Best of the bay this week! We're San Francisco's "Best Sex Education Resource" -- but then, you knew that.

Heather Corinna of Scarleteen will be here to visit next weekend -- come meet her and hear about Scarleteen at a reception on Friday, August 8 (this is a ideal time to talk to Heather about volunteering for the best youth sex ed website on the planet)! She be back on Sunday to talk about youth, sexuality, young people's sexual questions, the state of sex ed in America, and more. Please come be inspired by Heather's passion for getting smart, useful information to our kids and siblings.

And the terrific photographer Phyllis Christopher will be our Photo Club teacher next month! That workshop is slated for August 24.

Our cosponsored benefit, For The Love of Candye, raised close to $3500! Thanks so much to all of you who came and helped/performed/had fun and contributed! It takes a kinky urban village sometimes to take care of our own, and that describes El Rio to a T -- especially when we all take over!

Advanced Nude Yogaplay for Men -- 8/4
Self-Defense for Sex Workers -- 8/5 and following 4 weeks
Sex Workers' Writing Workshop -- 8/6
*Heather Corinna Reception -- 8/8
*Women Like Me Presents: Dr. Carol Queen "Hot Nights for Busy People" -- 8/9
*Heather Corinna Speaks Out! Youth, Sexuality, and Sex Ed -- 8/10
SF Jacks -- 8/11 and 25
Tarts and Crafts Night -- 8/13
Drag Swap! -- 8/16 day
Erotic Reading Circle Anniversary Show -- 8/16 evening
*Play Party Panel #2 --8/18
*THE ART OF PARTNERSHIP: Creating Partnership within Relationship -- 8/21
*All About T! a workshop about testosterone -- 8/23
*Nude Yogashare for Men -- 8/24
*CSC Photo Club with Phyllis Christopher
*Erotic Reading Circle -- 8/27

I accidentally entered the word "fucking" into the Google news search and, gosh, did I get some very interesting results. A heck of a lot of writers use the word "fucking" in their news stories. Albeit, not in the Times -- London, New York, LA, or otherwise. But the best part was down at the bottom of the page, where I got the prompt:

Get the latest news on fucking with Google alerts!

Yee haw. I just might!

Not really. Who has time for that? So what about the season premiere of Mad Men???? It was so great to see everybody back. I can't wait to see what's going to happen this season. And hasn't little Peggy become a bit of a b-i-t-c-h?

Some updates: I'll be volunteering at the screenings of the upcoming 48 Hour Film Project.  I am quite eager to see the results and meet the filmmakers.

Then next, in the fall, it's looking like I'll be a juror for the Columbus International Film & Video Festival. I'll keep you posted. I am very psyched about that.

And best of all... that's right, it's almost August! When Turner Classic Movies does Summer Under the Stars all month long! (Wouldn't it be nice if we could pick which star we wanted to be under for an entire month????  Hmmmm. Not sure what my answer would be. I guess at this point in my life, I would choose to be under Rudolph Valentino, but I'm guessing I'd be sharing a good deal of that "being underneath" space with a few of the boys. Of course, this is all under the assumption that I'd be under him before he'd been dead for 82 years... icky!)

Well, all righty!! Guess it's time to get back to work here, gang! Have a good one & thanks for visiting! See ya.

I'm sad to report that the legendary gay leatherman pioneer, Larry Townsend, died in Los Angeles yesterday. Jack Fristcher provided the obit below. Vaya con dios, amigo.

“Larry Townsend was the pseudonymous author of dozens of books including Run Little Leather Boy (1970) and The Leatherman’s Handbook (1972) at pioneer erotic presses such as Greenleaf Classics and the Other Traveler imprint of Olympia Press. Growing up as a teenager of Swiss-German extraction in Los Angeles a few houses from Noel Coward and Irene Dunne, he ate cookies with his neighbor Laura Hope Crews who was Aunt Pittypat in Gone with the Wind. He attended the prestigious Peddie School, and was stationed as Staff Sergeant in charge of NCOIC Operations of Air Intelligence Squadrons for nearly five years with the US Air Force in Germany (1950-1954). Completing his tour of duty, he entered into the 1950s underground of the LA leather scene where he and Montgomery Clift shared a lover. With his degree in industrial psychology from UCLA (1957), he worked in the private sector and as a probation officer with the Forestry Service. He began his pioneering activism in the politics of gay liberation in the early 1960s. In 1972, as president of the ‘Homophile Effort for Legal Protection’ which had been founded in 1969 to defend gays during and after arrests, he led a group in founding the H.E.L.P. Newsletter, the forebear of Drummer (1975). As a writer and photographer, he was an essential eyewitness of the drama and salon around Drummer in which his novels were often excerpted. His signature “Leather Notebook” column appeared in Drummer for twelve years beginning in 1980, and continued in Honcho to Spring 2008. His last novel, TimeMasters, was published April 2008.” This new thumbnail biography, approved and updated by Larry Townsend, is reprinted from the leather-heritage book Gay San Francisco: Eyewitness Drummer which, published June 20, 2008, also includes Larry’s “Eyewitness Introduction,” his last published writing.

From Emanuel Xavier in NYC:

FLORICANTO PRESS ANNOUNCES