9/11 CHAPEL SET ON FIRE

NEW YORK — A small fire at the temporary home for the remains of thousands of World Trade Center victims was likely arson committed after a break-in on Saturday, authorities said.
The smoldering flames in a section of the facility's chapel on Manhattan's East Side were quickly extinguished.
Firefighters got a call at about 9 a.m. to respond to Memorial Park, a weatherproof tent on Manhattan's East Side where the city is storing the remains of 9/11 victims who have yet to be identified.
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THE MUSEUM OF DEATH

the museum of death @ hollywood blvd & gower ave is alive and well.
my dear friends & affilates- JD healy & cathee schultz have reopened their museum dedicated to all things dead..

READ MORE-

BIRDS OF A FEATHER

from judex- 1963

THE ADVOCATE MAGAZINE IS FOLDING

after 40 years of publishing as the leading nation's oldest and largest gay news publication, the advocate is ceasing it's regular distribution.

after massive layoffs at Regent/Here Media, the Advocate is folding and becoming an insert!
according to QUEERTY
Just days after a glowing profile in the Dallas Morning News of Paul Colichman and Stephen Jarchow's Regent/Here Media comes word from inside the company: it's a sinking ship.
Colichman and Jarchow have gutted The Advocate's masthead in an attempt to stem the mag's bleeding cash reserves. A money loser when Here Media bought it from PlanetOut Partners, they've been unable to turn things around since acquiring the title.

On Wednesday, an estimated 13 staffers were let go, including the magazine's managing editor and 15-year veteran John Jameson was axed, along with art director Craig Edwards (his less experienced deputy was given the job, for much less cash), associate photo editor Meghan Quinn, and copy editor Teresa Morrison. On the business side, associate publisher Mike Phelps and production manager Brian Lindsey were let go. (We're told Lindsey "sent out a naked picture of himself with a sock over his happy parts" upon receiving the news. Send it in if you have it, please!)


And here's the news we're hearing: The Advocate will cease publication as a standalone magazine offered on the newsstand. Instead, it'll be poly-bagged as an insert of the company's fashion and lifestyle glossy Out. The Advocate will now be a 32-page insert in Out magazine! woah...
READ MORE-

as a side tidbit of info, i was a freelance photographer for the advocate during 1989-1993. i worked for editor richard rouilard, who organized the groundbreaking cover with madonna. the first mainstream celebrity to be on the cover of a gay publication. unheard of back then, common place now.

MOUSE'S BIRTHDAY TRAILER

my longtime friend & former model BARRY MORSE, is creating a unique performance art video. check out the teaser here-

LES DEUX CAFES~ UNE FOIS DE PLUS

leave it to my very longtime friend and former employer, (when i used to design men's clothing) MICHELE LAMY, to bring back the good ol days. michele & rick owens decided to "redux," her hollywood mainstay restaurant/nightclub~ LES DEUX CAFES, but this time in gay pariee! this one night affair took place at the restaurant of the air france bus depot, la gare d'autobus, (one of only three restaurants the lamy's will dine-the other two being the restaurant at paris train station and a little cafe next door to their home/showroom). lamy even brought back the musical arranger from les duex~ bobby woods and former doorman~ christopher woods, (no relation).

here's some pics-






LAMY has always been an original thinker and conduit for everything artistic. this interview sums up the one and only MICHELE LAMY-
interview by christopher bagley for w magazine
Los Angeles has never really been known for its interesting nightlife, but for a few years starting in the mid-1990s there was one restaurant-club-cabaret, partly located in a parking lot, that was the ultimate in Euro-Hollywood cool: Les Deux Cafes. The owner was Frenchwoman Michele Lamy, who, with her tattooed fingers and gold-plated teeth, presided over the scene like some groovy goth queen. In 2003, after Lamy and her partner, designer Rick Owens, relocated to Paris, the party fizzled out quickly (though Les Deux was later revived by Dolce Group). In recent years the gregarious Lamy—who still serves as Owens’ muse and collaborator and also backs rising fashion star Gareth Pugh—has satisfied her hostesses’ instinct by throwing dinner parties at the couple’s huge, minimalist townhouse-atelier, located in Paris’ bourgeois 7th arrondissement. But tomorrow night she’s bringing a taste of the old Les Deux to Paris with a private dinner and cabaret for 250, at a restaurant near an Air France bus station.

MICHELE LAMY IN VENICE-2009

CB-You haven’t hosted a party like this in years. Why now?

LAMY-This is kind of an accident, but I like to organize accidents. Bobby Woods, the music producer who used to play at Les Deux every Thursday, is coming in to perform with seven members of his band.

CB- And you’re going to sing a couple of songs with lyrics from Langston Hughes poems. When did you first sing in public?

LAMY- The whole thing was started a long time ago by my friend Helene Hazera [a transsexual French journalist and activist]. In the Seventies Helene used to live in my house in Montparnasse when she was getting her first hormone shots. We used to do striptease together. And after I moved to L.A. I was organizing a party, and she told me I should sing because I had a voice exactly like Marianne Oswald.

CB-So that was the original inspiration for Les Deux?

LAMY- Yes—Helene came to L.A. and she was the emcee at the party, wearing one of the first Rick Owens dresses. Then she came on stage dressed in only a girdle and tights, carrying a whip. And she started singing “My Bruises are My Emeralds,” while whipping herself so much that she bled! And I sang “King Kong Blues.” It was fabulous.

CB- Did you ever consider opening a club in Paris?

LAMY- No. That was a different time and a different place. If I did it again it would probably not be here. Maybe on one of those islands north of Venice. But I don’t know, I have too many other things to do.

CB- You’ve led a nomadic life with all kinds of careers. Not everyone realizes that as a young woman in France you worked as a defense attorney, and that you were also a student of philosopher Gilles Deleuze.

LAMY- I’ve always been interested in philosophy, but I don’t’ think there are any philosophers anymore. Now it’s artists. It’s a visual thing – you see art and you feel it but you don’t necessarily need to read Spinoza and Deleuze to understand it.

CB- Which young artists are you into right now?

LAMY- I’m totally into L.A. artists. I’m in love with Sterling Ruby and Elliot Hundley. I was at Basel this year with my daughter Scarlett, who is also an artist, and when we saw a new Elliot Hundley piece at Shaun Regen’s booth, we both screamed.

CB- Did you buy it?

LAMY- It was already sold. So I bought another piece of his that wasn’t yet finished, after seeing a photo of it on Shaun’s computer. So I still haven’t seen it, but I’m sure I will like it. It’s a wall piece with collage, candles coming out, a lot of colors. Very much the opposite of the Rick Owens world.

CB- You and Rick share a very similar, very particular aesthetic. What happens when you disagree on matters of taste?

LAMY- It’s intense.

CB-What’s a recent example?

LAMY- The Elliot Hundley is an example. Rick said, “How can you buy a work of art without seeing it?” Those disagreements happen rarely, but when they happen, they’re strong. This time he decided to give me the benefit of the doubt (laughs).

CB- What are you wearing today?

LAMY- This is an old Rick Owens cardigan, with some cashmere things he was doing when he worked with Revillon. And my tights are Margiela. My fur socks are Rick also, but they don’t have hard soles, so I wear them with black Crocs.

CB- And is that an elastic stocking that you’re wearing as a hat?

LAMY- I had an operation on my leg this year. When you are the hospital they give you these tight stockings to wear. And you see, they are perfect on the head!
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CIGAR FETISH IS SMOKIN'

the cigar fetish is going strong.

what was once a gay underground fetish has become mainstream and co-opted by the likes of arnold schwarzenegger, closet-case,tom seleck, cigar aficionado magazine and dorks like kevin costner.






here are some image from the original ol'skool - gay-leather fetish-cigar enthusiast... it's always nice to know the origins and roots of our cultures. makes one feel an accomplishment.








antebellum will be hosting an ol skool~ CIGAR FETISH party on the birthday of TOM OF FINLAND, 2010. for more info- antebellum@earthlink.net

LOOK AT THAT CUTE COSTUME

heidi klum's trainer @ her halloween party

THE MATTHEW SHEPARD & JAMES BYRD HATE CRIMES BILL BECOMES LAW

according to rachel weiner of the huffington post-
President Obama signed major civil rights legislation on Wednesday, making it a federal hate crime to assault people based on sexual orientation, gender and gender identity. The new measure expands the the scope of a 1968 law that applies to people attacked because of their race, religion or national origin. The U.S. Justice Department will have expanded authority to prosecute such crimes when local authorities don't.
The provision, called the Matthew Shepard & James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act is attached to a defense authorization bill. It is named after Matthew Shepard, a gay college student tortured and killed in 1998, and James Byrd Jr., a black man who was chained to a pickup truck and dragged to his death the same year.
The measure expands current hate crimes law to include violence based on gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability. To assure its passage after years of frustrated efforts, Democratic supporters attached the measure to the must-pass defense policy bill over the steep objections of many Republicans.
The measure was a priority of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that had been on the congressional agenda for a decade. During the signing ceremony, Obama acknowledged Shepard's mom, Judy, and remembered that he had told her this day would come. He also gave a nod to Kennedy's family. Going forward, Obama promised, people will be protected from violence based on "what they look like, who they love, how they pray or why they are."
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but according to queerty-
Just because the feds can now join hate crimes investigations, is the White House going to start instructing its minions to jump into the fray? LOLZ, yo! Not even the Human Rights Campaign, which has been pushing for this law, thinks so. Says the org's lobbyist David Stacy: "Are there going to be a huge number of prosecutions by the federal government, by the Justice Department, under this statute? No." (Worth remembering: Once upon a time, HRC supported ENDA even though it didn't include trans-protections.)
READ MORE-

whether this law changes allot or not much at all will be a matter of time, but the acknowledgment and inclusion of gays, lesbians bi's & transseuaxls into federal legal protections is history making, and antebellum is proud to bear witness.

ANOTHER ONE IS STARTING TO BITE THE DUST

as all the large conglomorations and institutions of 20th century "american," (which were based on lies in the first place) show signs of cracking, self-destructing and self-imploding, it was just a matter of time that scientology begins to dismantle.


according to writer- david gibson-
It's been a tough stretch for Scientology. The church founded by the late science fiction writer (and great prophet/odd duck/complete kook -- take your pick) L. Ron Hubbard in 1953 was dinged nearly a million bucks on Tuesday after a Paris court convicted six leaders of the French branch of Scientology of organized fraud in duping recruits out of lots of money.





Of course, given the number of high-profile celebs the Church of Scientology counts as members -- Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, Greta Van Susteren, among others -- and the extent of its high-end real estate holdings, even a million-dollar fine is unlikely to hamper the movement's ongoing quest for converts, and public acceptance.


What may be far more damaging for Scientology, as it always is for lockstep organizations, is the defection of a credible and highly visible member. In this case, the dissenter is Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Paul Haggis ("Crash, "Million Dollar Baby," and many others). Haggis' split with Scientology came in a letter to church spokesman Tommy Davis last August, but his departure was only made public in October when it was obtained by former high-level Scientology official Marty Rathbun, and published on his anti-Scientology Web site.

In the letter, Haggis says his chief reason for leaving after 35 years of affiliation was the church's apparent support for the anti-gay marriage ballot measure in California, Proposition 8, which passed last November. Haggis said he was disturbed that the San Diego branch of the church backed the measure, and that for nearly a year after Haggis first complained to Davis about that support, Davis and other Scientology leaders did not come out in opposition to Prop. 8 despite promising to do so.
READ MORE-

HALLOWEEN COSTUME FOR QUEENIE BOYS

How To Find A Masculine Halloween Costume For Your Effeminate Son

YOGA FOREVER @ THE HISTORIC CHAPEL

antebellum presents~
YOGA FOREVER @ the Historic Chapel of hollywood forever cemetery~ tomorrow~ tuesday~9:30 in the morning

the original chapel- 1906


the chaopel- today-2009

roll out of bed and join yoga forever~ a weekly practice @ hollywood forever cemetery.
classes are tuesday's @ 9:30am
indoors @ the Historic Chapel of hollywood forever cemetery
BYOM- (bring your own mat)
please join yogi- DANA MARCOUX for our tuesday, october 27th class. open to all levels of practice
bring all your dears...

$15 (donation) includes parking

hollywood forever
6000 santa monica blvd
hollywood,ca 90028

for more info~
antebellum@earthlink.net


the peacocks of hollywood forever cemetery

HELLO SPACEBOY

bowie & the foo-fighters- circa 1998

LOOK AT THAT CUTE COSTUME

my freind and PR wiz- henri myers has the best early halloween costume

not only is it H-O-T= S-E-X-Y, and cute as a button, look how well it goes with the room decor!

FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

is one david bowie's favorite singers. he is thinking of doing a version of her version of mozart's "queen of the night"

Born Florence Foster on July 19, 1868, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, Jenkins received music lessons as a child, and expressed a desire to go abroad to study music. Her wealthy father refused to pay the bill, so she eloped to Philadelphia with Frank Thornton Jenkins, a medical doctor. She earned a living there as a teacher and pianist. Upon her father's death in 1909, Jenkins inherited a sum of money which allowed her to take up the singing career that had been discouraged by her parents and former husband.


From her recordings, it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch and rhythm and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign language songs, is also noteworthy. Nonetheless, she became tremendously popular in her unconventional way. Her audiences apparently loved her for the amusement she provided rather than her musical ability. Critics often described her work in a backhanded way that may have served to pique public curiosity.


Jenkins often wore elaborate costumes that she designed herself, sometimes appearing in wings and tinsel.

After a taxicab crash in 1943 she found she could sing "a higher F than ever before." Instead of a lawsuit against the taxicab company, she sent the driver a box of expensive cigars.

At the age of 76, Jenkins finally performed at Carnegie Hall on October 25, 1944. So anticipated was the performance that tickets for the event sold out weeks in advance. Jenkins died a month later.

ONLINE TV IS BEATING OUT CABLE TV

according to a great article by david colker of the LAtimes, a growing number of people are cutting the television service connections from cable satellite and telephone companies in favor of viewing their picks over the computer.

Pulling the TV cord yet staying plugged in.
For reasons that include saving money, convenience, personal choice and a hatred of commercials, these viewers are cutting the cord from cable, satellite and telephone suppliers of TV service, and even throwing away the rabbit ears and other antennas that brought in over-the-air broadcasts.

"The idea that you come home and your entertainment choices are dictated on what some entertainment channel decides is not for me," said video game producer Chris Codding, whose Venice apartment has a 52-inch Sony television that's used only for video games and viewing DVDs.

"I really like the concept of having something in your mind that you want to watch," Codding said, "and then going to the computer and watching it."

There have been no mainstream studies on just how many people have cut the cord to established TV program suppliers, and the percentage of viewers who have done it is probably small. But there's plenty of evidence that the number of people who are watching TV shows online is growing. READ MORE-

i'm throwing in my 2cents here... there is one very important reason david barley touched on, and deserves an article on it's own.

the reason i switched to online is because i was sick of being gouged by the cable companies, in particular time/warner.
not only was the service overpriced, but the quality was spotty at best, and down right incompetent at it's worst.

i would spend hour upon hour with tech support, just to receive decent reception. not only was i paying a premium monthly fee of $170 per month, but i was treated to indifference and rudeness from T/W representatives and tech support. unfortunately T/W has become so big, they just don't care about the individual.

after 10 years of having the same cable service, ( on my end anyway) i had to endure 3 major company mergers and takeovers. comcast to roadrunner, to time/warner. each time the service would become pathetic and downright non-existent. after numerous errors and missteps by my cable service, they decided to threaten me with a shut off notice, ( they claimed i was one month late for services they were billing me in advance for) i took the bait and said. "cancel my service."

i have been using free internet tv ever since. i am very happy, stress free and my blog is thriving!

OSCAR WILDE'S BIRTHDAY~TEA PARTY

oscar wilde's 155th~birthday~tea party, (october 16th) was very nice... i would like to thank bill kaiser from the wildeon society and all the wilde enthusiasts that celebrated our great literary icon.



photos courtesy of raymond sandoval

be sure to join us for the anniversary of oscar wilde's death day~tea party~ november 30th~ 5pm~ tea will be served.
for more info- antebellum@earthlink.net

DAVID BOWIE'S TEETH

yes, there is a dental hygine fetish and here is a video to prove it. directed by mossie o'rourk

PINUP!

S-E-X-Y= H-O-T!
miguel javier inglesias, no relation- but he says otherwise.


courtesy- unzipped and photographer- lope navo

~ DIA ANTES DE LA MUERTOS~ @ HOLLYWOOD FOREVER

hollywood forever cemetery celebrates their dia de los muertos early~ last night october 24th. the event was amazing, all the graves were dressed to the nines and the valentino mausoleum became an art gallery~ there had to be over 3000 people dresses as skeletons rooming the cemetery at once~ !fantastico!
here are some pics~


here's a close up~


johnny & deedee ramone's grave looked amazing~



the tradition of dia de los muertos dates back thousands of years in most spanish speaking countries and some asian countries as well. DDLM~ is a celebration of the dead, it is meant to honor deceased loved ones, to pay respect and a tribute to the dead in general. over the years there has been allot of interest in america, especially in southern california, arizona, new mexico, and any area with a large latino population. the traditional day of the dead, (dia de los muertos) is november 2nd. deceased children are honored and celebrated on november 1st.






in southern california, arizona & new mexico~ dia de los muertos is now rivaling halloween as a favorite seasonal celebration.





the peacocks of hollywood forever