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Aout la la! Stade France's Ruggers go all the way!
Buy-Sexual
by Jim ProvenzanoBay Area Reporter
Sports Complex
Dec. 2003
Goodness! War and more war, meteors over the Bay, Gay Games VII up in the air, and Mummy Dearest (aka Wacko Jacko) finally in handcuffs. Times like these call for one remedy: shopping.
Here are a few jocking stuffer book, video and DVD options for yourself or the sports nut on your list.
Dieux du Stade Calendar & DVD
(Stade France, 24 Euros, )
Always an annual favorite, the sexy calendars put out as charity fundraisers by Stade France have stepped up their saucy oversized displays of male "beouf" by going full frontal!
Oui oui! Along with a few tasteful full Monty shots in its 2004 calendar, the new DVD, also in glorious black and white, showcases most of the French rugby team’s players in lots of sexy completely naked poses, being primped and styled (but not fluffed) while posing nude for the calendar. A few utterly gorgeous wrestlers and Mr. France also bare all.
Screencaps of the DVD have already flooded Yahoo groups and message boards on the Internet. The DVD is all-region coded, and may not work on older players, but will work on your computer’s DVD ROM player for, er, hands-free viewing pleasure. If you’re at all a fan of sexy sportsmen, this is simply the hit of the year.
Polish up your Francais, and visit www.stade.fr for a special deal: DVD, calendar, and a T-shirt for 60 Euros. Or, visit www.amazon.fr. The forms are the same as the English version, and I’ve heard they ship within 15 days.
Bloody Sundays by Mike Freeman
(William Morrow, 300 pages, $24.95)
You can’t fit Esera Tuaolo down the chimney, but for the serious football fan that loves some inside dish and self-congratulatory prose on why the sport’s so great, this is it.
Expansive in its critiques of some of the felonious fellows in the NFL, Freeman, a New York Times writer, also exposes some of the faults of the sport, its treatment of disposable and frequently injured athletes, and some proposed remedies. He also profiles some of football’s current greats: Tampa Bay coach Jon Gruden, NY giants defensive end Michael Strahan, and running back emmet Smith
Gay fans can speculate on the identity of the mystery gay player interviewed in the book. "Steven Thompson" (an alias), a gay NFL player claims there are currently "100 to 200 gay and bisexual" players in the league. Freeman spend only 18 pages in this segment, but more knowledgable fans (moi definitely excluded) are already playing "fantasy football," in trying to guess who the player is.
Huddle, a novel by Dan Boyle
(Southern Tier Editions, Harrington Park Press, 244 pages, $16.95)
While you’re holding your breath from waiting for those pros to come out, why not read about some rec league guys who are out?
Trying to resist the cute shirtless models on the book cover, I nevertheless found author Dan Boyle’s debut novel to be engaging, touching and quite realistic in its depiction of the intertwining lives of nine gay West Hollywood men who tumble around on the fields each Saturday to play rival teams. Boyle balances flag football action with chapters that follow each of the team members’ lives. They search for love, sex, drugs, cocktails, or some sense of meaning in their lives.
Even the sometimes-vapid world of WeHo is humanized through Boyle’s clever variance in narrative style. Shy guy Dave’s interior monologue in run-on lower case sentences exemplifies his repressed self-image. Film producer wannabe Mitch’s trip to Washington for a friend’s wedding, which includes a brief meeting with the Clinton family, is told in Horatio Alger "our hero" tones.
While the team’s X-laced visit to a Palm Springs White Party glorifies the circuit scene, it does offer a justified explanation as to why attendees often crowd the dance floor with their group hugs. Two sober hunks do get their poolside romantic moment.
Like the film Broken Hearts Club, the players are underdogs facing the big 3-0, but Boyle’s book explores the rec league sports aspect, and romance and homophobia within that world, a bit more thoroughly.
Out of Bounds
A novel by Fred Shank and Chris Fisher
(Xlibris, paperback, $19.00, 208 pages)
What would it be like for an out gay columnist to have a secretive romance with a closeted professional athlete? Hey, don’t ask me. I don’t kiss and tell.
But former sports publicist Fred Shank (now Public Information Coordinator for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund) does, in a brisk and realistic novel penned with his partner Chris Fisher.
Inspired by the whirlwind of Out editor Brendan Lemon’s "mystery date," Shank and Fisher decided to delve a bit deeper into the topic, and actually call it fiction.
Using obvious experience from Shank’s work in professional sports promotion, the novel captures the rumor-mongering and eventual media circus around the sexuality of New York Knicks star Matt Walker.
The story follows Village Voice writer Reese Gibbons, who meets Walker after having barely known him in college. Through a train ride to Philadelphia, a night chastely sharing a hotel room (darn!), and their growing friendship in New York, Gibbons struggles to tune his gaydar along the rumors about the handsome basketball star on the rise.
Struggling with his pro-outing conscience as a journalist, and his nosey effete friends, Gibbons falls for the hoopster, and does eventually have an affair (score!). He finds a few compatriots among Walker’s friends, and a few homophobic enemies in the stands at a game.
The ensuing chess game of media nudges toward outing ring true to any New Yorker familiar with the always shrill and scandal-loving NY Post. Toward the end, the narrative lurches to a riveting pace while shifting to Walker’s perspective as he struggles with his own truths.
Both Huddle and Out of Bounds are worthy additions in gay sports fiction. To authors Boyle, Shank and Fisher, welcome to the subgenre.
Wave Babes
(Dir. Lisa Knox Nerulg, $19.99)
Starring, co-produced and co-written by comedian Georgia Ragsdale, while not at all about serious surfing, this showcase for the offbeat comedian does serve up a dose of few sapphic silliness.
Inspired by a weekend party following break-up with her husband, Sam (Ragsdale) and two former surfer gal pals attempt to relive their surfing days, in between low-brow party shenanigans and bed-hopping with a dopey hunk of a pool boy (Troy Casey), and an ex-girlfriend or two. Shot on video, and obviously cartoonish with its fake shark attacks, the style resembles PeeWee’s Playhouse meets Sex and the City at the Dinah Shore Classic, had Dinah ever surfed.
Wrestling in the Hills of PA
(Dir. Victor Rook, DVD, $39.00)
Each July for the past several years, over 100 wrestlers of all styles from around the country (and even a few from Germany) make the semi-secretive trek to a gay campground in rural Pennsylvania for a weekend of outdoor wrestling, picnic table meals and pastoral romance.
Being pursued by a Viagra-popping Log Cabiner, and surreptitiously videotaped while wrestling on sometimes rain and mud-trampled mats have kept me from returning to this enclave a third time. But you can enjoy it from the warmth of your own home, sort of.
This isn’t a documentary, but more of a BG Wrestling-style eroticized yet clothed foray into submission style grappling set at Hillside. Oh, those boys could make a lot of noise in the late hours! If I could ever find I soundproof tent, I’d return to Hillside. For now, voyeurs without such a hardy nature can take a peek.
Outside the Lines: The World of the Gay Athlete
(ESPN Sports VHS, $49.95)
If you’re feeling lavish, and didn’t tape the ESPN special when it aired, you could pay retail for this 2000 special about "homosexuals in athletics." The acclaimed series still rings a bit lurid in tone to me, but it includes interviews with Billy Bean, David Kopay, and my favorite real-life high school gay teen jock hero, Greg Congden.
I Feel Used!
Most of these items (except the Stade France stuff) can be purchased or special-ordered at A Different Light Bookstore, 489 Castro St.
You can also get a previously read copy of PINS, my first novel, about gay wrestlers, on Amazon.com for as little as $6.00, or Monkey Suits, which is still doing fine at retail prices, thank you very much.
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