GiB#2 | Enough Already: Save Beirut Heritage!

Not a GiB matter per se, but definitely a noble cause that calls urgently for some more GiB-type sensitivity.

The sharks of the construction and financial industries. They’re changing the face of Beirut every day. They’re building their skyscrapers by destroying its old buildings. “Modernizing” the city at the expense of our architectural heritage.

Not a day goes by without them tearing down another colonial, Ottoman or traditional Lebanese mansion in Beirut. Stone after stone, one landmark after the other, they’re burying historic Beirut. Taking away its charm, its character. Violating its memory, its culture. Their crimes happen overnight, as they come down like thieves, while we watch helplessly.

I’m not being overly nostalgic and sentimental. Let’s be clear about something: As average Lebanese, we don’t mind “modernization” and the Dubai-type towers. We might even find some pride in them, as they serve our country’s ambitions of grandeur, don’t they, and they might well signify our economic comeback. As average Lebanese, we don’t mind the contrast of new v/s old – it’s actually part of Beirut’s charm. But why do we have to tear down the historic buildings to be able to have skyscrapers? Why not just build them elsewhere, or at the very least try to get creative with half measures like this?

Why not try to attract investors who actually give a damn, people who can see the value of owning and preserving one bit of Beirut paradise lost?

How can we turn a blind eye to the fact that this construction frenzy in the last three years might actually be just another “real estate bubble” that can only burst open? We’ve seen it happen elsewhere: if and when it happens here, it will be too late for Beirut.

And it’s not too far fetched of a scenario. The truth is that the overpriced multi-million luxury apartments they’re building are often bought by Arab investors as financial placements, they remain empty 11 months a year, and they alienate from large parts of the city the 99% of Lebanese people who can’t afford them, including in our new flamboyant, plasticky, ghost-town Downtown.

Who’s to blame here is one hell of a tricky question.

- The owners of the historic properties? They often can no longer afford maintaining their old family house, let alone renovating it after 20 years of war and another 20 of abandon. They’re not offered any help or incentives for doing so, while they get hammered by the entrepreneurs with juicy buyout offers.

- Blame the entrepreneurs? Well they are business people, ruthless sharks ruled by money and driven by profit – and God knows there’s profit to be made from turning an old 2-story mansion into a 20-story modern building. What could you expect from them as they wander around free from legal regulation?

- Or maybe blame the state? What state?! Oh… you mean the corrupt “urbanism” authorities that give away corrupt construction permits to corrupt entrepreneurs?

It’s such a deadlock situation that in this total passivity (collusion?) of the official authorities, we’re almost tempted to blame the non-profit organizations like UNESCO and the NGOs for not classifying enough properties, not protecting enough buildings, not countering enough projects, not rallying enough forces, and not standing strong enough in the face of the state/entrepreneurs duet… Isn’t it ironic?

Enough already! This is happening too fast, too blatantly, too savagely. It’s a saddening reality even for the most down-to-earth among us. We have to do something about this. Save Beirut Heritage!

(Photos taken on the same day around Monot and Gemmayze).

GiB#2 | Gayly Ever After

So last Monday (May 17) was the international day against homophobia. The next day, Portugal joined the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Norway, Sweden, South Africa and 5 U.S. states in recognizing gay marriage. Big week for gay rights.

It might be that I didn’t really look for one, but I’m not aware of any GiB activity in Lebanon for the occasion. As far as I’m concerned the celebration boiled down to watching a debate on French TV on the topic “Is France homophobic?”, where gay activists were complaining about France not being enough ahead of the curve, about the persistence of occasional gay bashings and some kids being kicked out from home for being gay.

As for Lebanon, the conversation I had with my friends while we were watching the program sums it up well:

- “Would you say Lebanon is homophobic?”, my straight friend asked.
- “This level of debate doesn’t even apply here”, my GiB friend and I responded in sync.

Not to belittle how far along Lebanon has gone, where it stands right now, the efforts we’re putting and where we’re headed - We’re actually doing much better here than anywhere else in the Middle East except for Israel. I do believe that gay tolerance is on the rise in Lebanon, and it’s happening right before our eyes. I mean seriously, where else in the region would they dare to use a sign like this new GiB joint in Monot did?

GiB#2 | Off the Beaten Track

Summer holidays are right around the corner, but that’s not always good news as far as going out at night.

Indeed when it comes to going out during high season, Beirut's all-year-round partygoers come out worse than spoiled kids.

On these nights the debate quickly shifts away from what to do tonight, to which places to avoid tonight. Suddenly it all seems too crowded, too touristy, too wannabe.

And so it’s a time when we go out less on weekends, more on weekdays, try to think outside the box, get out away more often from Beirut, discover new places, await the occasional house parties, and stay on the lookout for the all-too-rare off-parties.

Judging by the ever-changing listings in TimeOut, Beirut nightlife might be bustling indeed. But the reality is, it would get quite boring if it weren’t for its alternative/underground scene outside the mainstream/commercial spots.

… So as the summer settles down I call on you Power of the (Safer) Underground, please keep us stumbling again on wall posts like this one from a private Beirut rooftop party last summer!

(pics from The  Basement (v1.0), and somewhere in Gemmayze).

GiB#2 | r u c/uc?

Many guys still have me, many lost me at birth, some took me off later on, and some have grown me back; I separate the world’s men into two groups… who am I?

Yep, you’ve guessed it, this one’s about the foreskin. For those with any interest in this little piece of extra skin - or the absence thereof -, here is the factsheet for Lebanon!

Most Lebanese men, at least 75% of us, are circumcised. It’s a common procedure across Lebanon’s hospitals, that is done on baby boys generally at birth.

You don’t have to sleep with a statistically significant sample of Lebanese guys (like we GiBs did) to verify this figure: just run a quick search on the online cruising websites, and you’ll quickly notice that the vast majority of profiles indicate “Cut”.

This high proportion makes sense, given that over half of Lebanon’s population is Muslim, and Muslims practice circumcision routinely. That’s that.

What is more surprising however is the case of the Christians, who comprise somewhere between one-third and one-half of the Lebanese. In fact, the Christians of Lebanon also practice circumcision widely, especially the non-Maronites among them.

Now considering that the vast majority of the world’s Christians do not circumcise their newborns, this makes Lebanon’s Christians one of the most circumcised Christian populations in the world, similar to the Copts in Egypt, another Christian minority living in a Muslim environment.

Another exception is the United States, which today remains the only mostly-Christian country that circumcises infants on a routine basis with no need for medical justification. The figures are much lower, or trending downwards, in the other mostly-Christian and first-world countries.

So it seems that whether or not a newborn Christian boy of the world gets circumcised or not, depends less on specific Christian beliefs, and more on local culture and habit. Under this assumption, Lebanon’s particularity owes more to the long-lasting influence of Judaism and Islam in this part of the world, and less to matters specific to Levantine Christianity.

Now on to the GiB facts.

Digging a little deeper in the online research, you’ll notice how many of the “Cut” GiB profiles also indicate under Fetishes: “Cut”. What’s more, some guys have it listed as their one-and-only Fetish… another way of saying “Cut Only Please!”

Over the years I have noticed that GiBs have not just a slight preference for the cut, which is understandable as it is the norm around here, but rather, that they tend to have quite a strong preference for the cut.

So the minority of uncut guys in Lebanon must cope with this noted GiB preference for the cut. Luckily, this matter remains of secondary importance to a lot of GiBs, who don’t pay it more attention than it deserves.

The awkward part however, is that all-too-many GiBs seem to associate “uncut” with “bad hygiene”. It could be out of experience, or due to the lack of it, but in both cases these GiBs don’t acknowledge that hygiene is a matter of each individual, that it comes with education, and that one can have bad surprises on either side, whether it be with a guy who is cut, or uncut.

Let’s face it, two days without a shower and the uncut gets worse than the cut… but does that justify such an anti-uncut bias among GiBs?

(Photo taken in Paris)

GiB#2 | A quand un Festival Gay Digne de ce Nom à Beyrouth?

... Pour que la ‘majorité silencieuse’ sorte enfin de ses cocons, que la foule (les folles?) de l’Acid se mette en maillot ‘une-pièce’ pour aller danser, et pour que les touristes gays d’Europe, d’Amérique et des pays Arabes (qui n’attendent que ça) puissent enfin se fixer une date pour faire un voyage au Liban.

... Pour regrouper une foule de gens, une masse gay et gay-friendly (pour ne pas dire « hetero-friendly ») avec tous les L, les G, les B, les T et leurs amis; qu’elle puisse se réunir enfin au grand jour, dans toute sa diversité et sa normalité, le temps d'une fête.

... Qu’elle se fasse grande et belle à la face du Libanais lambda, histoire d'accélerer sa prise de conscience, de lui montrer clairement et une fois pour toute qu’elle existe bel et bien, qu’elle vit parmi eux et avec eux, pacifique, festive, créative...

On ne peut pas dire qu’il n’existe rien de tel à Beyrouth, ou qu’on n’est pas sur la bonne voie pour y arriver. Helem a bel et bien organisé des (mini) gay-pride a Beyrouth, et l’organisateur de séjours Lebtour continue bien d’organiser sa ‘croisière’ annuelle BearArabia.

Or du fait de son alliance avec BearArabia, Lebtour s’adresse en grande partie a la scène bear, un groupe finalement assez niche et communautaire. Je n’y suis jamais allé, et ne suis pas prêt de le faire. Sans vouloir paraître moqueur, je ne peux pas m’empêcher de sourire en pensant a tous ces durs-au-coeur-tendre (et poilu ?) jouant des hanches sur les derniers tubes de Nancy Ajram.

Celà dit Lebtour a au moins le mérite d’avoir osé, de l’avoir fait et refait plusieurs années de suite, d’avoir créé le rendez-vous (début Mai – c’est dans 10 jours!), et surtout d’avoir démontré a quiconque serait tenté de se lancer dans ce business, qu'il ne risque pas d'être embêté par les forces de l’ordre, et que ça pourrait bien marcher...

...et je serais flatté si on le baptisait le « GiB Festival » !

(Photo prise à la Laïque Pride de Dimanche dernier (25 Avril 2010) au Centreville)

GiB#2 | Does Damascus

There are quite a few places not too far from Beirut to go on a weekend getaway, and certainly many reasons to want to take a break from this exhausting city.

One such place is Damascus, the capital of neighboring Syria. I went there last weekend and it was such a change of scene for me that I look forward to doing it again – Here are some things I learned on this trip for you to consider before your next Damascus escapade!

- It’s a smooth drive and only 3 hours away: Beirut-Damascus is a 3-hour trip door-to-door, that’s including a stop of about 1 hour at the Lebanese and Syrian borders (also including another stop in Chtaura to munch on the delicious local dairy and exchange money). It is a generally smooth ride if you go outside the peak hours, as there could be more traffic on ‘Damascus Road’ and more chaos at the two borders, especially at the Lebanese border. The trip is also inexpensive: it costs about 15$ per person each way using a shared (and decent) taxi from the Charles Helou station in Beirut, to the Sumariyya station outside Damascus, more if you use the local taxi companies or don’t want to share the cab with other passengers. One of the bummers is that the cost for crossing the borders will vary depending on your nationality, all the way from free for Lebanese to 30$ for Europeans to 50$ for U.S. or Canadian citizens.

- Experience an authentic Arabic metropolis: Damascus offers an urban tourism experience that is very different from Beirut, but a little bit similar to the other two major cities of Lebanon, Tripoli or Saida, which are smaller and more conservative. Although a 'fun scene' is definitely emerging in Damascus, its yuppies will continue to come to Beirut for a few more years, when they need to get a breath of fresh air, despite the fact that going out in Beirut is much more expensive than going out in Damascus: Indeed, there is no such thing as busy barhopping, heavy clubbing or ongoing cultural events in Damascus. The other way around, interest from the Lebanese in visiting Damascus is growing, as it offers the ideal opportunity for a change of air, to spend a couple days wandering around for hours across its picturesque side streets and getting lost in its endless souks, while getting impregnated with authentic Arabic culture and energy -- things that Westernized Beirut has lost a long time ago, or perhaps never really had.

 - Meet a mixed crowd of friendly people: Damascus is a cosmopolitan city and the faces on its streets are amazingly diverse, starting with the Syrians who are quite a mixed (and good-looking!) people. Then there’s the hordes of Iranian and Pakistani pilgrims hopping around the hundreds of mosques of this ex-capital of the Islamic empire. But you also see many foreigners on the streets of Damascus. As it turns out, many of them are not just visiting on tourism, but actually living in Damascus, from students studying under an exchange program to learn Arabic to young people working for local NGOs, to business people who went there trying to take advantage of Syria’s awakening economy. Most importantly, people in Syria seem to be under less stress and seem to be less worried about the hassles of life than the Lebanese (and God knows they have many!). It is immediately noticeable: people in Syria smile more easily, help out more readily, and get mad less quickly.

- Pamper yourself with affordable little pleasures: One of my pleasant surprises was that you can actually eat well in the restaurants of Damascus, with the added benefit that the bill is so low that coming from Beirut, you’re surprised you’ve actually had good food for this price. As for shopping, the streets of Damascus are a place where you can still use your bargaining power to buy anything and everything, from Arab/Ottoman antiques that are way overpriced in Beirut, to good quality cotton linen to delicious oriental sweets. Unfortunately, much like in the souks of Lebanon, the rest of Damascus’ souks has become mostly made-in-China crap. And then, after long hours of walking around, nothing beats a traditional hammam experience. And don’t say you couldn’t find any, for Damascus has over 20!

- Get a glimpse of the emerging GiD life: If like myself and like Paul you know how to appreciate the erotic energy of the hammams, Damascus is the place for you. Some of the historic and/or renovated ones are of exceptional architecture. A couple of them are said to be kind of gay, and one of them is way gay (Al Jadid). But despite Damascus’ huge size and a population of over 4 million, gay life in Damascus boils down to only a handful of spots beyond the hammams: a few gay-friendly hangouts, a couple cruising zones like Shaalan… and the rest of it is confined to the realm of the Internet. I did get the chance however to meet a couple of GiDs (Gay in Damascus), and definitely think there is room out there for much more GiB/GiD synergy!

My Moon My Man | by Art Hake

My boyfriend is killing me. He works non-stop, goes out all night, then returns home vegging next to me on the couch, considering late-night TV sessions as “spending time together”. This is no relationship counseling but when I look around, I can only confirm the obvious: relationships are a whole lotta shit to deal with.

Straight friends? Forget it. They don’t communicate, they never say what they think or do what they say and they’re too insane. Complicated, immature & selfish. Imagine that coming from a GiB! What we share with those is the anxiety of commitment; but we deal with that just fine. At least, when we play around we have the decency to assume it. And we don’t mind crowded games.

Gay friends? Diddo. We’re moody and unstable. Plus, our relationships are often based on our “condition” and that shapes our dealing with our BF. Are we out? Are we gonna see each others again? Are we fcuked up from closeted behavior and overexposure to society’s homophobia? We have difficulty finding our soulmate (someone please kill gay social networks), we have issues meeting in public (or at least most of the public spots -knowing not all of us necessarily enjoy flamboyant ghettos) and we are left with a delicate choice of 2 alternatives: be an open couple or an exclusive couple. We know by now that one of those don’t really work, so good luck with the patch work.

Around my couch, I see few single men & women. One girl friend left her BF of 5 years, because of lack of commitment. One GiB friend suffers from CUS (Chronic Undertwenty Syndrome) -they never learn! One other GiB friend has been lonely for so long he’s successfully passed the 24/24 horniness stage. Then another one anxiously awaits seasonal vacations, hoping to binge on European sweets. His diet forbids any local flavors. I also happen to regularly see 2 happy straight couples, but that’s boring, since they make it a point to rub it in your face. And I confirm one successful local normal adorable GiB couple. How swell, they even have a dog!

We all have issues, blah blah blah. My beau and I have been together for a while now, which helps. We screw up but we end up fixing things. Whatever we do, works. At least for us.

In Happy Life, if you have a cute; loving boyfriend, keep it! And before changing others, change yourself. Who’s in for a drink?

GiB#2 | Beirut Down Under

I knew I had reached rock bottom when I ended up visiting one of the “porn theaters” of Beirut last year. Tired of the useless social-flirting and the pointless online-dating (a common condition known as the GiB Boredom Syndrome) and feeling horny as hell, that’s where I went to get anonymous, right-here-right-now sex.

Picture an old movie theater, probably dating back from the 80’s, torn down so bad it has obviously never been renovated since the glory days of Beirut Cinema. Ignore the 007-type posters in the lobby and forget the 5$ entrance fee (when a regular movie theater is no more than 8$). Then come on in to an extremely dark room where the only source of light is a faded screen showing straight porn from a classical French movie; One in every two seats is broken and the smell around the bathroom area is abominable.

It takes less than a minute to want to flee this place. But I stayed, and it took me another minute to get used to the dark inside and to start noticing by the fire of their cigarettes that there are actually guys sitting here and there in the room, scattered across the rows. Most of them sit there apparently alone, but in some instances I could see the silhouette of two heads next to each other, suggesting there’s some action going on.

Once I thought I had figured out how this place works, I started walking around the room. I chose a guy who looked decent and around my age, sat in the seat right next to him, fooled around for a few minutes until I came, and left without a word... talk about a quickie!

Who are the regulars in these places, I haven’t been able to figure it out. Of about ten people I came across that day, a few were 20-something Arab workers, a couple were old fat guys, a couple others were mid-aged taxi-driver-type guys, one was a total queen… and one was an adventurous GiB lost in lust (that would be me). Go figure if there's a pattern.

My other unsolved mystery remains: is everyone there gay? Or is it more of a place for those nasty straight guys who get so horny and with no woman around, they’re willing to take a walk on the wild side for some sexual attention?

From Lebtour’s online cruising guide:

Cinemas & Dark rooms
AT YOUR OWN RISK!

Commentary: All "At Your Own Risk" and specify clearly what you want and whether money is involved:

-    Cinema Al Khayyam located in Jeanne d'Arc str. Hamra - Beirut
Cinema showing old films and straight porn. Best for cruising on Sun afternoons.

-    Cinema Morocco located in Mar Doumit str. Sin el Fil – Nabaa - Beirut
Movie theatre showing old movies - straight porn and mainstream films. Cruising and pick-up area's for men. Some "action" in the upstairs seating and bathrooms.

-    Cinema Royal located in Cornish el Nahr – Nabaa side - Beirut
Movie theatre showing old American & international movies - straight porn and mainstream films. Some "action" in the upstairs seating and bathrooms used as a dark room.

-    Cinema Plaza located in Mar Doumit str. Sin el Fil – Nabaa - Beirut
Best on Sun afternoons. Very busy. Best crowd can be found here.

GiB#2 | Party Treats

Unless one really doesn’t want to see it, the drugs are all over the place in Beirut and this also holds true in the GiB community. Lebanon’s rehab centers and anti-drug NGOs are being kept quite busy (photo of Skoun’s latest brochure).


How could it be any different when the drugs are constantly grown and smuggled into and out of the Beqaa valley, en route to and from Europe and the world, all under political inaction, not to say political cover?

Yes, they’ll set on fire some of the fields each year; they’ll occasionally arrest a few low- or mid-level dealers; shut down the local ecstasy lab, but no, people are never left sniffing Xanax lines in Lebanon as they are in Dubai.

Blame it on the war, on the hippies or on the country’s decadence as a whole, but it’s been the same status-quo for decades if not centuries. So who knows, they might well review the legislation one day! (photo taken in California).

GiB#2 | Summer’s Gonna be Hot

It was time for a good night dancing, and all I had to do was choose from the multitude of DJs gigs going on that weekend and the following one. Big names playing in town both weekends, and even bigger ones announced for April. It’s still only March but the cadence looks already like June!

So it was the Cosmic Gate & John 00 Fleming gig at Forum de Beyrouth last Saturday. Another success by NRJ/Poliakov, although the music was not my favorite, and the crowd not the hottest.

It seems like yesterday when we were offered our first true “laser show” experience at an event in Beirut. But today, it looks as though it has become standard for a Beirut gig of this scale, to boast incredible lighting, laser show, sound system, VJ’ing, not to count the dancers, fire blowers, and other aliens marching in the crowd – all by keeping the entrance around 40$.

If this is not just a temporary Spring revival and it keeps going the same way till summer, it’s about to get really, really hot around here…

GiB#2 | Arab Naïveté and the Silk Cocoons

Picture Lebanon as one of its trees, the mulberry tree / shajrit toot / mûrier; Picture its people as the silk-making worms.

The worms wander around the branches all day and night, going back and forth between the small and larger branches, feeding on fresh leaves or weaving silk cocoons, much of it ugly, some of it nice.

The worms are all living some kind of a love-and-hate relationship with the naturally beautiful tree that is their country. Many of the worms have long turned butterflies, and have gone seeking new horizons on Faraway trees. The tree gets busy around summertime, when many native and foreign butterflies, black or bright, come visiting.

Many worms, most notably GiB worms, are busy most of the time nesting their silk cocoon. Cocoons around their life at home, their life at work and their social life.

Some GiB worms wait impatiently for the weekend to come down from their little branch, and gather with fellow GiB worms on the tip of a handful of little Beirut branches, to feed together on Acid and Milk leaves.

Some GiB worms occasionally bump into each others on shady branches called Corniche or Freeway. Other GiB worms prefer to meet GiB worms from the comfort of their cocoons using Internet branches called Manjam, Gaydar or Facebook.

Time goes by on this sun-bathed tree as the majority of its GiB worms stays quiet, untiringly wrapping their repressed and e-based double-lives in thick and sick cocoons.

You can tell the many GiB-ophobic worms by their traits of the family, macho and conservative type, but the GiB worms have learned to deal with it by just ignoring them. Generally the straight worms don’t seem to mind the GiB worms, some actually feed on them for fun or business, but the reality is that the majority of straight worms can’t even tell a GiB worm.

Remember this is a third world tree, it’s Arab and it’s messy. So messy that the subtly-GiB looks and acts of GiB worms easily go unnoticed and unquestioned around the branches, at least in Beirut. What holds true for these two presumably GiB-ophobic worms getting intimate after an exhausting day at the construction site (Photo from Charles Fred’s Flickr), also holds true for borderline-gay appearance and behavior of GiBs on the trunk, Beirut.

Because Lebanon’s worms know by instinct that they would be left alone to die if the tree were to dry, keeping the tree alive remains the common struggle of all. So after going through many storms and droughts, the tree’s got used to feeding on substances called “Whatever Happens”, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, and “Live and Let Live”.

Now add to the mix a touch of this common naiveté that prevails in third-world trees, naiveté about the reality of GiB matters and other disturbing things – a powerful substance made up of misinformation, self-denial and taboo. The result is plain and simple: the existence of GiB worms on the tree might be considered positive by some, negative by others, but it is, by any scale, so very secondary…

…for the tree’s crowded, but it’s here to stay, sexy and cruel, selfish and poor; good thing it’s got some fine silk and pretty butterflies, too!

GiB#2 | Rainbow Tea Tasting

It's a first. Starting this Sunday, the GiBs might have a new weekly hangout for Sunday afternoons, a European style tea dance party that promises to be fun, hot and trendy.

Taking place at EM Chill in Mar Mikhael, which has been making strides lately in promoting musical diversity and local talent. Does Beirut have a Tea Dance Party of its own at last? Let's make it happen!

GiB#2 | Go FAG Yourself!

Who the hell would call a shop “FAG”?!

Well, this guy in Jdeide did.

We should have him pose (proudly) in front of his shop and give him free publicity. How's that for an anti gay-bashing revenge? I bet he won’t even have a clue.

GiB#2 | Cotton Candy HIs and LOs

A couple years ago a bunch of folks realized – rightly so – that Beirut’s night scene could use a little more (pink) spice indeed. They went ahead and created a label, and started to throw out gigs, about once a month, that brought together a growing crowd of partygoers. They picked unusual, underground venues, hopping from a warehouse to an artist’s loft, from a rooftop to a deserted cinema, from a pool to a hotel suite.

Building on hype and word-of-mouth, in the beginning and for some time Cotton Candy has been able to build a fun, eclectic, LGBT-friendly crowd of likeminded party people. Every regular likes to remember their own favorite, that unforgettable Cotton Candy night.

Cotton Candy is still going, but since year 2 the parties have been hit or miss. On the good ones, the in-house DJs DJette, Tia & Romax, Jade (Basement) or Ordinary K set the place on fire so bad, the venue is trippy, the people pretty and the theme witty, and the vibe turns out great.

 At too many other gigs however, especially during the course of 2009, Cotton Candy seemed to be falling in the hole it dig for itself. Alternative turning Commercial. Eclectic turning Wannabe. Underground turning Suffocating. BYOB (bring-your-own-bottle) turning $50-Covers. Adult Adolescent turning Teenager. Creative turning Junk. Trashy turning Cheap. And GiB Loyalty was turning Boycott...

But then came the last two months’ Cotton Candies which fell more on the better side. Did the organizers get the wake-up call, and is Cotton Candy getting back on track? We GiBs certainly do hope so!

GiB#2 | Growing Up a GiB Village -- Monot Scores One (Half)

Another GiB joint opens up in Monot. Seems to be targeted at the bear(ded) scene - Wolf beware!

Is the crown on the logo that of a queen or a king? Can't decide...But I can already picture the bunch of self-proclaimed Kings bellydancing at Boshka on a boys-night-out.

Anyway, I hope it won’t turn out as crappy as the signs.

GiB#2 | Up for a Scrub?

Gay bathhouses (or ‘saunas’) are well rooted in Western gay culture and in many large cities of the world. Beirut doesn’t have any gay saunas worthy of the name, however history left us GiBs with a somewhat similar thing: the Hammam’s (aka Turkish baths). It used to be that the public baths played a social role during the Ottoman influence on the region (lasting until the 1900’s), a place where men – and women on specific days – would go to unwind, purify their body and socialize. I don’t know exactly who used to go there back then, if it really included intellectuals and politicians as they say, and whether the Hammam used to have a gay or libertarian connotation at all. It might be that the lines were more blurry back then anyway... But since then these Ottoman relics have clearly taken a sharp GiB turn!

After many of them closed down through the years, two authentic hammams are still standing today: hammam el Nuzha (1920’s) off the Ring in Beirut (the pics are from its entrance and lobby area), and hammam el Abed (1800’s) in the old souks of Tripoli. These two look so kitsch that going there is like taking a trip back in time. There’s also a third bathhouse, this one more modern, called Shehrazade near the stadium in Bourj Hammoud. To the curious and the horny, these can be interesting and fun places to visit.

But unlike the openly gay bathhouses abroad, Lebanon’s bathhouses have nothing nearly as explicit as the closed cubicles, the dark rooms, the sling rooms and the gloryholes that are commonplace elsewhere. The amenities here are usually limited to a steam room, a dry sauna, showers, and massage rooms, although Shehrazade also has a pretty big Jacuzzi. On the downside, the amenities are not very well maintained, making the hygiene of these worlds of water highly questionable: you can’t help but think twice before putting on the flip-flops and towels they give you as you come in, and wonder whether you’re not actually stepping into a world of fungus instead.

 Until it closed down a couple years ago, Hammam el-Sheikh near the Cola roundabout was the closest thing Lebanon ever had to a real gay bathhouse. It seemed to be a quite successful business in the beginning, which was astonishing given its location in this populous and mostly Muslim part of the city. At some point, el-Sheikh looked like it was becoming the official pre-party for Acid on weekends. Picture GiB queens in une-pièce swim suits gathered in an old-style picturesque architecture, dancing to Arabic music around a large indoor pool with bar area, tiptoeing along the watercourse connecting the pool to the Jacuzzi, then sneaking in to the shady waterfall tunnel leading up to a not-so-secret 5mx5m dimly-lit vault, the 'darkroom'. Isolated by water from outside sight, light, and sound, GiB-in, GiB-out, this one room was probably the most private and safe kinky public GiB spot (ever) in Lebanon!

If you’re going to visit (what remains of) the bathhouses for action, things won’t be as straightforward as you would hope. Action between customers is quick and furtive, and it feels like the staff are constantly playing police with the men getting touchy. As for the local staff – mostly Syrians and Egyptians of all ages – they have access to the private rooms where they provide optional services such as massage, soaping and body scrubs. 

It’s your choice whether to go for the experienced 60-year old scrubber and get a quality treat, or choose the 20 year-old hunk pretending to know massage, who’ll try to include a 5-minute rental of his body into the deal, only to then remind you incessantly not to forget to tip him through the cashier on  the way out since you’re not carrying any money on you. Now how’s this for embarrassment, as you’re paying for your services on the way out, when the cashier shouts out loud for the whole place to hear: “w 3achra la 7assan! w 3achra la shebeb!” (“+ 10 for Hassan, and 10 for the boys!”).

 

GiB#2 I Male Arabia in-a-box

It strikes me every time I return from travel, how much testosterone flows in the streets of Beirut.

It can’t escape you as soon as you get there: The drive from the airport towards the city center takes you right through the southern suburbs of Beirut (until they build the next bridge to ride above it), one of the most densely populated areas of the city. The sex ratio on the streets of Beirut Suburbia is obvious, weighted heavily towards men, unlike what they say it is in the clubs. For the streets are full of men who hang around outside all day, seemingly with not much to do, while their women are probably hanging out at home somewhere in Lebanon or back in Syria, Egypt, Iraq or Soudan.

Mostly your average working-age Arab guys – shop owners, mechanics, street merchants, or free-floating workers on the hunt for underpaid work hours. They’re typically wearing undershirts and jogging pants, work uniforms or old-fashioned clothes, and maybe underwear like these ones I saw in Souk-el-Ahad. As far as the physics of it,  there is certainly one for every taste. Skin tones ranging all the way from light to dark, hair colors from black to red (great-grandma had a fling with a Crusader), bodies from skinny to buff, from soft to hairy. Ugly, fat, cute or pretty. But as far as chemistry for us GiBs, this is probably not boyfriend material and not our cup of tea at least for those more into the metrosexual type. Although a GiB friend tells me all sorts of great things about the now-regular (paid) lover he picked up from the crowd!

Based on some tourist feedback I got, it is these raw and masculine Arab men, and not the guys-next-door of Beirut (or the sophisticated GiBs for that matter), that make up much of the erotic energy that emanates from this city, that seeds its ground. It took me an absence from the country to be able to see this manly mass as a feature for Beirut, as it clearly creates a fertile ground for a middle-eastern flavored fantasy!

GiB#2 | Growing a GiB Village -- Monot or Mar Mikhael?

 The newcomer to the GiB map, Avant-Garde (off the ‘Ring’) is not quite as avant-gardiste as advertised. The bar/resto/club seems to be confused, and confusing, in many ways: how it’s set up, what it tries to be, its music and its lighting strategies. The few times I tried it, it was wannabe DJs spinning for a non-festive crowd, and always seemed to be either too empty, or too crowded. That said, GiBs certainly welcome this new addition to this underserved niche that is the GiB night scene, which is not only small, but also fragmented into sub-niches catering to different crowds. I must say however that I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the food there and the new faces. Not to mention Wednesday Karaoke which can be hilarious if you get the chance like me to trip over a GiB doing Dalida.

But what Avant-Garde gets the most credit for is its location, at the lower end of good old Monot. For many of us 20- and 30-somethings, GiBs and others, our first barhopping (or even drinking) experiences are set across, under and over the side streets of Monot in the 90’s. It’s the first bar district worthy of the name that our generation ever had, and it still embodies these memories. Sad story for Monot after its boom in the late 90s, as it was hit by the residents’ lobbying campaigns against the disturbance caused by its extending night scene, later followed by the security issues in that area starting 2005. By which time the competition from Gemmayze had fully kicked in, leaving Monot to melt down back to its basic spots around Pacifico.

In this context, the flourishing Avant-Garde might well be signaling the start of a grass roots effort taking place in Monot, if other spots decided to pursue this effort to maybe one day make Monot the gay district of Beirut. In my opinion Monot has at least as much character and charm as Gemmayze, which has gone too mainstream and far too crowded, and it sure has the past experience and the potential it needs to rebuild an underground scene from the ground up and become GiB land. To those who get bothered at the thought of having a “Village” in Beirut, which would do nothing but ghettoize the GiBs, I hear you. But considering that it would be located in the heart of the city, right there where it all started, would certainly be a plus.

The other area that is a strong contender in my mind to become the future ‘GiB Village’ of Beirut is Mar Mikhael. Unlike Monot, Mar Mikhael is starting from scratch, with a new hangout opening every month or so, and while it seems to be very dynamic and GiB friendly lately, it faces the risk of turning into nothing but a pale continuation of Gemmayze street, which is itself extending further every year. But for now Mar Mikhael sure is on the right track, and it’s not me being too Gibby-minded to see it evolving in the GiB direction. Check out this piece from our infamous gay journalist and DJ ZM, who also writes under a couple pseudos in L’Orient Le Jour (way to write as a she!), where he describes Mar Mikhael as “le Marais beyrouthin” (le Marais is the gay village in center Paris).

Mon carré des Bermudes
Par Marguerite K. | 23/12/2009

Hotte d’or
Il y a un carré magique. Dans un quartier magique : Mar Mikhaïl. J'ai dit à Houssam, un jour qu'on s'y promenait : c'est le Marais beyrouthin. Le petit Berlin. Le laboratoire de cette capitale-tentacule où se cuisine tout ce qui sera hype et hyperbranché dans quelques mois. J'aime marcher dans Mar Mikhaïl. Je déambule. Et c'est une tour de Babel. On y parle toutes les langues, on y voit toutes les couleurs et on y renifle des odeurs qu'on croyait perdues. On touche même des espèces rares. Dans la boutique de la rue se croisent l'ouvrier en manque de conserves, des haricots souvent, et la jeune architecte suprabranchouille qui cherche une lampe. Il y a aussi la concierge d'un immeuble Yacoubian made in Beyrouth, le photographe en mal d'amour, un jeune couple qui ne comprend plus rien et ne veut plus rien comprendre, et puis une vieille folle et son canari. Ce quartier me plaît parce qu'il survivra à tout, même à une explosion nucléaire ; ce quartier s'autosuffit. Ce quartier est magique et il y a un carré magique. Un : Papercup. Cette librairie-salon de thé a été rêvée par une Rania Naufal mi Anaïs Nin mi Dita Von Teese. Andy Warhol aurait adoré s'y étendre. Cet espace dédié au beau et au bon est bourré de surprises. C'est une petite oasis européenne où s'agglutinent ceux qui veulent découvrir et ceux qui restent couverts, ceux qui veulent revoir et ceux qui veulent être vus. J'aime. Deux : Paula K. Dans cette boutique tenue d'une main très Veuve Clicquot par la over-Bree Van de Kamp Joumana Abillamaa Comaty, il y a les folies de Paula K. Elle invente puis réinvente le vêtement d'une femme et chaque femme devient Farah Diba, chaque femme devient toutes les femmes : le tissu est anamorphosé, c'est de la dentelle virile, même Houssam s'émeut et exige que je ressorte de la boutique rhabillée de la tête aux pieds. Trois : Tawlét souk el-tayeb. La cantine du délicieux Kamal Mouzawak. L'hymne à la vie, l'hymne à l'amour, l'amour d'une terre, l'amour d'un pays, donc l'amour de sa cuisine, ce garçon aime nourrir les gens, les rendre heureux, sa viande crue fond dans les bouches, c'est du patrimoine estampillé Unesco, les serveurs sont jolis. Quatre : l'antre de Caline Chidiac. Là où elle fantasme des playlists d'une simplicité et d'une efficacité infernales. Cette sorcière des platines est aux DJ ce qu'Agynes Deyn est aux mannequins : une comète, un ovni, une jalousie et les réceptions d'ici et de là-bas implosent en un feu d'artifice de décibels, la Chidiac ferait danser une guillotine, un lit de mort, une pétasse beyrouthine, même moi j'ai succombé. Il n'y a rien à dire : j'aime Mar Mikhaïl, et mon carré magique, Rania/Paula/Kamal/Caline, est terriblement miam miam.
margueritek@live.com 

Got Milk? | by Art Hake

I was going through some archives related to Gay activism throughout the world and found this angelic face throwing an inspiring speech at an LGBT rally. I had no idea who he was: Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter, Academy Award winner for his work on Milk (2008).

I wanna step into 2010 with positivity, so I decided to write about this, even though it’s kinda irrelevant to the blog purpose.

This blog is really about Beirut and the underground life of GiBs. For whether we throw a party attended by few hundred GiBs or open a shop with a hidden gay-friendly tag, don’t fool yourself: we still live underground. And no matter how blue the sky may seem, we don’t get to see it except from the corner of a window, behind obstructing curtains.

Some of our fellow local activists try to change things. We have associations, but it seems their own members don’t get along quite well. The “Abolish 534” group on Facebook is short to 3,000 members. The straight alliance for gay rights is a good cover-up for GiBs who can’t stand up for themselves –and I don’t blame them.

Aide-toi, le ciel t'aidera ("Help yourself, and heaven will help you"). We can’t rely on others to help us out of our own shit, even though we never asked for it in the first place. Life’s unfair, hell yeah! But what can we do about it? Isn’t it time we do something about it?

California is debating same-sex marriage laws and we can’t even go out in the daylight. I just wish we had more inspiring personalities around us. Leaders we respect. People we can look up to. People who’s presence and support would help us fight for our rights in a more efficient way.

This is what Dustin said about Harvey Milk: “If Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches, or by the government, or by their families, that you re beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you, God does love you and that very soon I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours.”

Happy New Whatever | by Art Hake

Recovery took longer than expected; after all, it was New Year’s Eve and Lebanese parties are not really limited by dawn!

Best wishes to the GiB community, may we have a breakthrough year in terms of social rights, freedom, blablabla*

Seriously, what the f*ck happened this year? As usual, my plans were drawn as the evening went by. So I had my fair share of hopping from place to place, swinging like Tarzan on his liana, but without the scream, although it could’ve come in handy -anyway, it was all within walking distance, including (not so) private residences, pubs, streets and random WC’s. New Year parties are always something around here, but that one was kinda exhilarating. While the BCBG crowds overbooked the various restaurants and upper-scale clubs promoting constipated entertainment at crazy rates ($450 for an Elvis lookalike party or an average of $1,200 per person in the main hotels), we GiBs along with the “others” decided (quite randomly I tell you) to merge throughout the streets of Downtown and Gemmayzeh.

The Cotton Candy party attracted quite a GiB crowd (mostly undertwenties, drove me nuts) but the streets were overflown with real sweets. People were striving for attention: dress codes, attitudes, a perfect blend of sassiness and provocation. There were people dancing on the police trucks, the ones that are supposed to remove your car if you’re parked on the wrong lane. Many Arab fellows everywhere, Jordanians specifically, or did I strike Jordanian repeatedly? At some point, I found myself with a bunch of Italians but we had communication problems. Then a Brit came from behind (sorry for the bad choice of word) and started asking the weirdest questions. I snoozed him, many times. Yeah that one was completely off tracks!

But even that did not make me berserk. What did were the horses. Not the ones you see after popping many themed pills. Real horses, with cops on them! That was our government’s gift, unleashed in Downtown on the 31st : a mounted force (what an exciting label). We can now claim to be a JiD. Jungle in Development. I hope that won’t scare Tarzan off…


* Seriously, I mean it!

GiB#2 | Gayin’ Beirut

2009 is drawing to an end. Mine started out with a not-so-fair dose of sad events and disappointments, which made it way easy to swallow that I would not get to see Michael Jackson (a)live in London. For Lebanon, 2009 will be marked as a challenging, yet positive year for the country in general. Challenging, because our greater issues were and continue to be here all along, haunting us, unresolved, threatening to turn the country upside down within minutes. Yet positive, because we have not had a war or significant turmoil, have fared better than many other countries through the global economic downturn, and are ending the year with a President and a Parliament and a Government -- what more could we ask for?

To top it, in 2009 Lebanon had the best tourist season in a long time, some say since the 70s, but certainly since 2004, the last “good year” since the plunge. It has been a while since Lebanon, Beirut in particular, has drawn so much ink in the Travel sections of the world press, where it's long been a hot topic for the Politics section. A recent study showed that Lebanon was one of very few countries where tourism activity actually increased in 2009, up 43 percent over the previous year according to the tourism ministry, although tourists have probably not spent as much as in previous years. What’s more, this record year came about at a time when all the major tourist destinations of the world saw their number of visitors decline in 2009.

Coincidentally, in 2009 Beirut topped the New York Times's ranking of the top 44 destinations to visit in '09 and was listed as one of the top 10 liveliest cities in the world by Lonely Planet. In that same year  Beirut was coined, in turn, the “Sin City of the Middle East” in AFP, “Back, and Beautiful” in the Guardian, a “Tourist’s Mecca” in Reportage, and questioned as “Best Party City?” on CNN... Anyone else wants to take a shot at it?

But what really counts in these numbers for us as GiBs, is that the increase was not just more (extended) families coming from the Gulf, but also more tourists from Europe and North America, including gay tourists (now we’re talking!).

Fortunately the buzz also holds true for gay Beirut, for it sure got its share of air time, too. To 'Sin City', Patrick Healy from the NY Times preferred to coin Beirut as the “Provincetown of the Middle East”, named after a low-key Vegas-type city on the U.S. East Coast where "Gay Life is Everywhere" (so much for boring terms like 'Paris/Switzerland of the Middle East'), while a German magazine described Beirut as an “Unspoiled Gay Paradise”. Is this an indication that Beirut's finally coming of age as a gay tourist destination?


But if you ever read these reporter stories, like the NY Times article where you learn all about the  BearArabia summer parties (because I doubt you’ll ever read any reviews here on this blog), make sure to handle the hype with care! As Richard Ammon from GlobalGayz.com (beautifully) puts it into context in his response piece Beirut: “Provincetown of the Middle East” - Not!”, it’s still not quite la-la-land around here (as here in Venice Beach, CA)!

GiB#1 | Christmas is so Gay!

Everywhere you look, gay people, dressed up in gay clothes, driving gaily to buy gay stuff for other gay people to enjoy. Houses are gays, shops are gay –hell, the streets are gay too!

Don’t you just love Christmas? I know I do…

GiB#2 | Playing the GiB Card

A couple years ago I tripped over this photo during an entire minute at the urinal of the restroom of Montagnou in Faraya. One minute's too short so I had to take a photo of it to find out what the fcuk this thing is about.

First time I see an ad so blatantly playing the GiB card in Lebanon… I’d be curious to know the outcome of this campaign and what has happened with this place.

Oh and in case you’re still wondering, this is for manicure for men!

GiB#2 | Party in a Steel Factory! 18/12/2009

Mashrou3 Leila gave a fun concert last night. Probably not their best musical performance, for they could use a little more presence on stage, and the new songs of the (finally completed) album are merely more of the same. Good thing there was the unique location to make up for it! The concert was in a huge warehouse inside a steel factory in Qarantina, partying in a garage/construction type décor, very trippy indeed! I hope they open up this venue again for a DJ gig some day, because the sound really did not serve well this band, it was terrible in some places, but it could be great with the right equipment and / or sound engineer.

The other cool thing besides the venue was the crowd. Attendance was much higher than the organizers had expected, so much that they ran out of free albums giveaways, then they ran out of drinks, and then of printed tickets! They had only planned for 1,000 people but probably drew 1,500. They should have counted with all the people who are back for the holidays… A funny thing happened when they were out of tickets, they used a burj hammoud happy holidays flyers for LL5,000 instead, and then when those ran out as well the rest of us came in for free – thanks guys we owe you one! But my favorite part in all of this was the lots and lots of cute twenty-something guys, with lots of GiBs too! But perhaps less than one could expect, given that at least two of the band’s seven are gay… wish there were more GiBs in the indie scene...

Oh and can someone explain to me the 5-minute Misba7-type  performance (GiB belly dancing) on stage out of the blue?

GiB#2 | Tattooed All Over

I just love these stencils we’re starting to see more and more around the streets of Beirut. Not only I find this visible face of Beirut’s underground art scene to be aesthetic, it’s also that it’s so well in tune with the city. It tends to highlight its history, and the scratching paint and bullet impacts on its walls. To me they bring back the image of war-torn Beirut that I have known during my childhood, with the life that kept going underneath. That these stencils started to appear during the severe repression of freedom of speech especially during the Syrian occupation until not too long ago, gives them even more of a symbolic value. It makes them sound like an outcry from the younger generations to the older ones, that we might well have our own ideas about democracy.

These graffiti by local artists are also giving more character to certain industrial areas of the city, some of which are starting to emerge as the next hip/artist loft -type neighborhoods in the near suburbs of Beirut. And the fact that there are so much more popping out lately is like there’s a popular uprising in the making.  

The pics I’m posting are some of the GiB-related material that I have come across during my nocturnal wanderings in the streets of Beirut, with one pic by Joumana Medlej. Not surprisingly, all of these stencils are found in Hamra, except the one that says BAREBACK (!) that I saw in front of the bus station in Jisr el Wati. But the merit of these stencils is not just being work by GiBs. For they are also among the first ones in Beirut: a superb demonstration of pioneering work by GiBs. 

If you want to check out more of these, this photo blog rockandahotplace and this guy's blog Beirut NTSC and his book "Archewallogy - Les murs murs de la ville" have a large collection of Beirut graffiti and stencils, with some additional GiB material too. I also came across two recent books on the same topic, Rhéa Karam's Breathing Walls and Tala Saleh's Marking Beirut. That's quite a few publications for one year! When I look at these images there’s so many of them that ring a bell, it’s like they’re part of the pedestrians’ landmarks by now. Some say the one with the guy from Sukleen is by Banksy… But as much as I would like it to be so, I doubt it really is.

This also reminds me of the story “Gay Community Thrives in Lebanon” which ran last year on NPR, the main independent news outlet in the U.S. One of the interviewees in the story is Hamed from Mashrou3 Leila, who talks about the stencil in the last picture. This stencil marks the current evolution of mentalities in Lebanon, where until recently the official language used for ‘homosexual’ in Arabic was akin to ‘deviant’ or ‘fag’. The audio of the NPR story is worth listening to and below is the excerpt from the transcript.

Keep the graffiti coming guys! I hope it covers the entire city one day. We should do a fundraiser to buy lots of spraypaint, what do you say?

“HAMED SINNO (Graffiti Artist; Student): The thing is, in Arabic, people describe homosexuality as ‘shaaz’ which translates to deviant, literally. And it's the most popular way of describing it, and it's kind of offensive, you know, like someone's basically calling you deviant and it stems from a lot of - like a lot of cultural understandings that are very oppressive. So the graffiti - the guy wearing a mask says who's a deviant? Your mom is a deviant. I'm homosexual.
MERAJI: Hamed himself has been the target of anti-gay graffiti, so he's using his graffiti to express frustration at his own treatment. He hopes to spark a dialogue about homosexuality in Lebanon, where it's still against the law. For Brian Whitaker, a journalist and author of "Unspeakable Love," a book about gay and lesbian life in the Arab world, writes that in terms of opportunities for gay social life and activism, Beirut is as good as it gets. Whitaker credits Beirut's ethnic and religious diversity.”

GiB#2 | Afterizing Beirut

So you’re desperately wondering what to do next when the club or bar you're at turns on the annoying extra light on you, it's too early, and you haven't had enough yet. If you’d been lucky that day, you’d be in a club or even in a random bar that occasionally stayed up late that night (behind closed doors, so never mind the license). Better yet, you could've had the best of both worlds by going out with your straight/mixed friends while still going home with the guy you want to spend the rest of the night with.

But no luck tonight Mr Alright is not around, you’re still on a roll, and it’s too early for munchees.

Well that’s bad news because unfortunately, it seems to me that there are less options today for after parties than there were a few years back. As far as dedicated after-hours I only know of Wonderbar facing Basement and Electro Mécanique in Mar Mikhael still left. Many others have closed down, and most of them have been short-lived. For some of the recent ones, Silicon near Freeway and Black Diamond in Monot closed down less than two years after opening, and word has it EM is closing down soon. But these were also examples of low-budget clubs that thought they could afford cheap decor while still securing a loyal crowd, when every other new club in Beirut has cost over six figures. Granted, the concept could be viable, for all what is expected from these clubs is good electro music with deep sound, and to secure a safe haven with 0 chance of a brutal kick-down from the alphabet soup the crowd's had.

Good thing the two main late-night clubs popular with GiBs, Acid and B018, are still standing, and stay up till 6. But at Acid (only weekends), chances are by that time the atmosphere will be that of an end-of-party. The mass of regulars does not tend to stay that late after their favorite part, the Arabic special that plays around 2 (my tourist friends too love it – how exotic!). So, the undisputed queen of late night Beirut remains the longstanding B018. There, almost every day of the week, the crowd builds up around 3am only to leave after sunrise when the day light enters into the tomb through its sliding rooftop, and the sound of electrobeats gives way to the morning prayer of the muezzin nearby. Trippy... Plus a good thing about the recently instated 25,000LL cover charge is that it has eased down the once-too-picky bouncers at the door, which works well for a last-minute boys night out.

As a general rule at these parties, the later you stay, the GiBber it gets. While the sex ratio is desperately not in favor of the straight guys to begin with, it is not uncommon for these parties to end up almost exclusively entre hommes, put aside the untiring fag hags. That’s when the cruising begins, as it hits the GiB that he’s about to go back home to deal with his horniness alone. Lucky the GiB whose over-substanced body is screaming “don’t touch me” anyway.

-- Recent update! A new after hours party in Beirut on Saturdays (well more like Sundays) called AFTER HOURS HOT SUNDAY from "961 clubbers" starting soon! From their info on facebook: Once every two weeks, different club each time, 6am to 6pm, 10$. Kicking it off with a party called "sex in the cave", you can't be any more suggestive. Could be lame though, let's wait and see. Maybe I'll see you there ;)
-- Another update: ElectroMecanique is now EM Chill, no longer afterhours, revamped. Looks pathetic from the outside, but will give it a try!

Where Have All the Good Men Gone? | by Art Hake

Men are pigs. But face it: we like bacon!

And I’m missing some old-fashioned stinky fun. It’s Thursday so I went out with fellow hunters to Hamra. Bardo is always a nice destination, especially on weeknights. It felt good to see some European faces around: music was fun (although their sound system would really use an upgrade) and drinks were pouring in. I was hoping to catch a flirtatious glimpse, but I guess it was too crowded for that: I could barely see beyond an elbow stuck in my face all night. Oh well, Basement then? Why the hell not!

Many familiar GiBs there, undertwenties mostly, thrusting their dear selves to the beats. GiB#2 would’ve appreciated the company, but nothing interesting for me tonight in that club. One hour of exposure is enough anyway, so we’re off to some greener grass. Behind the Green Door, no pun intended! But first, we had to cross Gemmayze Street, which was overwhelmed with stuck-up straight men and under-dressed women. Let’s not be judgmental. I mean we all know how hard they try. The man-to-woman ratio is becoming scary: 7 Eves for every Adam. We share the frustration, sista’.

And we leave you unchallenged access to the stuck-up straight men. You kinda always preferred the wedding material anyway. Which brings me back to my own frustration: where have all the good men gone?

Many colorful shots beyond this point, surrounded by a hetero-friendly company behind the damn door, I realized I was going home alone.

At least the holidays are coming; we’ll have plenty of time to catch up with the returning brothers. Can’t wait ‘til Christmas! Meanwhile, I think I’m gonna throw a desperate look at Manjam.