Did London Grindr Really Crash Because Of Olympians?

I saw a headline which I initially thought was something from The Onion: "Gay Dating App Crashes As Olympic Athletes Arrive."  This was from THE SUN, a notorious tabloid in the UK. But despite the craziness of this statement, it's factually true. Grindr, a gay dating app, did crash over the weekend at the same time that athletes from around the world were arriving in London for the kickoff of the 2012 Olympics, which start this Friday.  The outage started in East London where a lot of athletes are staying.

Grindr's most popular city is London, with 350,000 users, and the speculation is that the arrival of thousands of athletes caused the system to overload. However, not all Olympians are gay.  In fact, I would argue that very few of them are....maybe 7-10% if you take the usual statistical model. It's possible it was just a busy sexy summer weekend in London and it crashed, just as the athletes happened to show up. Friends in NYC w/iPhones report that Grindr crashes/freezes are becoming more common as the service grows more popular. 

Anyway, it does make for a good headline though....and it has been racing around the internet today because of it.  

BEST SUMMER EVER Needs Your Help--Just 12 Days Left

So we've got 12 days left on our Kickstarter to raise money for BEST SUMMER EVER, my new feature film. The bad news is we've got a long way to go to make our goal. On Kickstarter, it's all or nothing and so far we have only raised about 10% of the 25k needed to start production on the film.  But fear not...we can still reach our goal. That is, if you help us out.

The beauty of crowd-funding is that all it takes is a lot of people giving a little bit to help make it happen. For instance if everyone I know on Facebook donates just $20 then our campaign is over TODAY. Done. That's it. And we can start making this movie a reality. So if you haven't helped us out, here are all the pertinent links below.  

http://kck.st/LPKr4B     (Kickstarter)

http://on.fb.me/MXNIlr    (FB)

http://bit.ly/NPnG4w  (tumblr)

twitter.com/bestsummermovie

Please give what you can and support us online by tweeting or posting about our Kickstarter w/our bitly link below. Or you can copy and share our image above too...it's prettier that way! Everything little thing you to support this little film counts...so don't underestimate the power of you. :) Thanks so much and I hope you are having the BEST SUMMER EVER!  #BSE

Boy Scouts Strip Eagle Scout Of His Rank Because He's Gay

It's been a bad week for the Boy Scouts.  They decided to continue their practice of banning "avowed homosexuals" from the organization as both leaders and scouts.  First of all, who uses the phrase "avowed homosexuals"?  Clearly this is the start of their problem.  They are stuck so far in the past it would be comical, if not for the fact that their hateful policy has such real world percussions.

Take the case of 19 year old Eagle Scout Eric Jones. He sat down to be honest (a Boy Scout trait, mind you) with his scout leader about his sexuality last weekend and he was not only asked not to return to the troop, but he was stripped of all honors earned over the last decade he had been involved in scouting.

The BSA are now taking the US military's old line, that they are not asking people their sexuality but if they are honest and open about it, then they will be asked to leave the organization.  You would think they might heed the military's example, which now encourages soldiers to be honest and not lie which was deemed damaging to morale and esprit de corps. But the Scouts would like to pretend it is the 1960s, when being an "avowed homosexual" was basically a criminal act.  Fortunately, that is no longer the case. 


It would only serve Scouting to accept the reality that has long been the case and will be in the future; there are gay men in scouting. I was one and, though it was all years before I came out, I had wonderful experiences with troop 460 in Kensington, MD. It seems wrong that they would want to deny that same experience to other young men simply because they are gay. 

20 Years Of Construction On The Gowanus Expressway

The folks over at NY1 have been doing an interesting series of reports, looking back on 20 years of NYC local news as they celebrate their 20th anniversary. There's a piece that went up today on their website about one story that hasn't changed in two decades; that of the constant road work on the Gowanus Expressway.

Anyone who has driven this awful stretch of elevated highway knows it is one of the worst traffic spots in the entire metro area and a stretch of highway that has not gotten noticeably better since 1992 (when NY1 went on the air). There have been plans floated to replace it with a tunnel but instead the city and state will continue to plow more than $700 million dollars into this overcrowded, antiquated road. Civic planning, or lack thereof, at its absolute worst. It took nearly 20 years for Boston's Big Dig--but at least that city has something to show for it!

The Lovesong Of J. Gordon Leavitt

So this is cute: an adorkable guy on Fire Island in a trendy tank plays a ukelele love song to Joseph Gordon Leavitt. In the song he refers to him as JGL which is fortunate because are all sorts of great words that rhyme with "L", as he demonstrates in this 3 minute song. At the end, his friends say that this will get him on THE ELLEN SHOW. Well, with the new and final DARK NIGHT opening this Friday, starring JGL of course, they just might be right.  5,000 hits today and counting....

Was The Summer of '82 The Best Summer Ever For Movies?

There was a piece online this week from CBS This Morning where film critic David Edelstein of New York magazine called the summer of '82 Hollywood's Best Summer Ever for movies.  If you look at the lineup, you just might agree; E.T., POLTERGEIST, STAR TREK II: WRATH OF KAHN, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, ROCKY III and even TRON.  He says it was the last summer of big movies with personal themes before the marketeers took over. He is not alone in his assessment.

In fact, down in Texas at one of my favorite local movie houses The Alamo (where I've had a few films play myself!), they are doing a summer retrospective of the summer of '82.  They have these movies playing on their original release dates even.  What a fun idea!  Anyway, you can watch the segment below and post your comments about whether you agree with Edelstein.

Help Us Spread The Word About The BEST SUMMER EVER

It's been almost 10 days since we started our Kickstarter campaign for my new feature film BEST SUMMER EVER. Much thanks to all our early supporters who have given so generously since--we've had more than a few major donors at the $100 level and above which has been amazing!  But now we need hundreds of donors below that level for this whole thing to work. So I'm asking those who have supported BSE to help us get the word out on social media...where we now have a great presence: we are live on TWITTER, FACEBOOK and even TUMBLR.


So you can join in all the Internet fun AND really help us out by following and "Liking" us too.  But even more helpful than that is making your friends/followers aware of our fundraising here on Kickstarter by tweeting or posting kickstarter URL to your twitter or FB status update:  

http://kck.st/LPKr4B

The key to crowd sourcing is growing our crowd...ie; you tell two friends and they tell two friends and so on and so on. So if you can do this sometime in the next day or two, that would be major!  So please alert your peeps about this fun movie....it won't get made unless we get it out to more people who can donate, especially at the lower levels. 100 folks donating 10 bucks = a cool 1K! So please help us out as we spread the word about BSE... and I hope you have the Best Summer Ever! :)

SATURDAY SPECIAL: Ab Fab Workout From The 80s Is Kinda Dirty

OK--despite what this looks like, this is not porn.  Seriously. It is some crazy exercise video when everyone with a video camera and a studio was making exercise videos (post-Fonda).  But in this unique example of the genre, the music, men and moves are all kinda porny. If only MAGIC MIKE was this sexy, I feel like I might have got my money's worth! LoL  But seriously, this is the weirdest and sexiest thing I've seen on the Internets in a while. Enjoy and work those abs!

An Amazing Roller Coaster And A Flying Nun

This week, the TIMES did a lovely video piece on the roller coaster out at Holiday World amusement park called The Voyage. This newer "woodie" is consistently ranked high on the list of best old school coasters in the country.  As many know, I am a roller coaster fanatic and would love to check this one out.  Unfortunately, it's in the middle of Indiana and I don't have a car. :(

Anyway, there's also an odd interview at the end of the piece with a nun who is also a bit of a coaster addict.  Sister Michelle Sinkhorn is a Benedictine who is something of a modern day flying nun, given the number of times she had ridden The Voyage (8 in one day once!). You can read more about Sister Michelle on the monastery's profile page -- thoroughly modern Sr. Michele!

AUGUST Is Now Available On iTunes

Last summer, I had a few posts about a feature film that I co-wrote/produced called AUGUST. It was directed by my friend Eldar Rappaport and is a steamy love triangle set in Los Angeles during a heatwave. Well, now that it's summer again and almost August, it seems the appropriate time for the film to get its commercial release.

This week, AUGUST is available for rental or purchase via iTunes; to rent its $4 and to buy its $14. For those who like to have an actual DVD, that will be available later this month via Amazon and Wolfe Video, our US distributor. So check it out this week because, as the temps rise, it's a great time to stay in the comfort of your own home and watch a hot new movie. Thanks for your support!  And stay tuned for more news on my new feature BEST SUMMER EVER....