[rating=4]
US: 88 min • TLA Releasing • DVD

A coming of age film that is well-scripted and dodges sentimentality.

Dorian Blues has won to date fourteen Film Festival Awards, and deservedly so. It is a beautifully scripted and shot movie. Every beat of the dialogue rings with a truth, which often leads the story and characters in a direction that other directors wouldn’t have the courage to go..

An Interview with Clayton Littlewood.

The author of the blog that became the book Dirty White Boy talks about Soho, prostitution, and trans.

“I wasn’t really interested in celebrities, because you can pick up Heat magazine for that. I was interested in the characters, the local Soho-ites.”

[rating=4]
US: 83 min • Verve Pictures • DVD

This documentary about the career of Harvey Milk is fascinating and compelling, as well as being essential viewing.

“The Times of Harvey Milk is an honourable and fitting tribute; and not just to the man, but the very idea of him and what he stood for. It is about his part in a movement, a candidacy. If every movement needs a martyr to remind it of its ideals, and what it can be, such a figure is to be found in Harvey Milk.”

[rating=4]
Released on January 9th, 2009

is the most life-affirming, diverse, accomplished and downright entertaining debut Pop album since the Scissor Sisters.

While she certainly gets by with a little help here and there – a DJ, producers, co-writers, the odd rapper – you never ever get the impression on The Fame that it’s anybody else’s vision but GaGa’s.

[rating=5]
Released on February 16th, 2009

It’s another Morrrissey record, but it’s a great one.

Lyrically the man can still turn a phrase like nobody else and that finely-honed, characteristic dark humour abounds.

[rating=4]
289 pages • Bloomsbury • September 30th, 2008

Original, and captivating, Neil Gaiman’s latest novel is the story of a young boy who is rescued by the guardian of the graveyard after his parents are murdered.

The Graveyard Book is a modern Jungle Book, and it tells the story of how Bod grows up amongst the graveyard ghosts.

[rating=5]
154 pages • Nation Books • October 2nd, 2008

This collection of strips from 2005-2008 lifts the lid on the twisted world of right-wing American politics. It is as funny as it is frightening.

This comic strip wonders what would happen if Jeffrey Dahmer had been a right wing pundit and published a book called Liberals: Kill Them and Eat Them; and solves the problem of the Republican ticket by introducing the newcomer ‘guy in a Reagan mask’ and his running mate, ‘another guy in a Reagan mask’.

Our guest columnist is the musician, entertainer, and all-round brilliant Justin Bond.

Justin writes with verve on the controversial subject of Evolution, and questions whether Santa is real or not.

“I like the story about how God created the earth in seven days. It’s also super cute to see grown ups defending it, arguing over it, giving money in order to support other people who believe in it.”

Polari Facts explores the gay animal underworld.

“Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it.” Run away creationists! Hide your eyes!

Homosexuality has been observed in all species of Great Apes, which incidentally is a category that includes humans (although not of course if you are a creationist, who are not interested in facts at all).