ENERGIE Hits 20 – I Hit The Booze

So, somehow on Friday I managed to wangle my tight butt a ticket to the Energie birthday party at their flagship store on Carnaby Street. The Italian fashion brand was celebrating 20 years of oversized buckles, shinny leather jackets and over zipped jeans.

While sipping on vodka cocktails the evening begun as many do with me watching funny PR girls running around in their high heels, over straightened blonde hair and layered makeup faces pretending to be busy and important. Having had years of experience in the PR field, dashing around events like a headless chicken, I always find it funny being on the other end of the clipboard.
My friends and I took up our post, next to the bar naturally, and ogled at the various fit straight men in attendance. One friend decided he would play it cool and chat to some random but ended up scaring the poor macho man out of the party. Run fat boy run!

Whilst the evening started slow it picked up with a nice helping hand from out Columbian connection. A few more vodka cocktails and we were ready for the nights entertainment: ex-factor contestant Ruth Lorenzo. Now, to say I was blown away was an understatement. Being a hard lined Leona fan I was intrigued as her set began with the melody to Run and in truth I thought she would fall flat on her face to challenge The Voice. She didn’t! In fact she was amazing and I look forward to hearing her upcoming album. I must admit I was mesmerized until I saw the cute image from the corner of my eye that is Brian Friedman. Despite his ghastly shirt I would still give him a go.


Annoyingly or perhaps luckily as I was about to pounce, sorry I mean make my move, I was grabbed my friend who was insistent we move our party of 3 to a new location. Mr Gay-Guy-In-London was not happy although I can’t work out if the look in Brian’s eye was one of relief or sorry.

It gets worse! The first email to greet me of the day was JLS made a surprise appearance. JLS! I fucking hate surprises. Forget Brian, I could of made my moves on little Ashton – I got a thing for small men. Still what’s a hot shag when you can have shits and giggles with mates…

Naughty, Naughty, Ms Moss!

So the lovely Ms Kate Moss is once again filling our press with more column inches but this time it’s not over cocaine or ketamine but apparently encouraging young girls to become anorexic.

According to Sky News “The British star caused outrage after revealing that one of her mottos is the phrase "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" in a recent interview to fashion website WWD.” Apparently her actions have reignited the size zero debate with many accusing poor Kate of promoting the look.

Hmmmm, Sky I’m not outraged! Can no once sense that her remarks were made in jest? Christ, can no one make a joke anymore?

I’ve actually had the pleasure of meeting Ms Moss, well ok we were in the same room and never actually spoke but it’s the same thing. Anyway! I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me admitting a little detail about her, she is not a size zero! I know, shock horror. Also whilst she may not be in the running for Mother of the Year, Kate is a mum and do people really think that she would want to encourage such behavior to her child. So why are the press jumping on the band wagon to blame her, was there really nothing to write about in today’s press?

There is no doubt that we are an image obsessed society. I too am part of this cattle run, I say this with my desk draw filled with protein and creatine in that never ending attempt at body perfection. I’m washing it all down today with my 3rd mince pie so I guess the six pack goal can wait another day.

Anyway, back to my point. Whilst celebs such as Kate do have influence over teenagers I don’t think we can attack them over ever joke they make. Especially to the extreme of every major newspaper, tv channel and tiny gay blog covering it! They are human after all.

So the question moving forward is what will her PR team conjure up to get her back on side with the press, hmmm perhaps she will take over from Fergie as the new face of Weight Watchers, after all "nothing tastes as good as skinny feels" was originally their tagline.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Caprice Hits Out At Kate Moss 'Skinny' Slogan (news.sky.com)
• Moss Denies Encouraging Girls To Starve (news.sky.com)
• Kate Moss: 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels' (telegraph.co.uk)

What Gay Community?

Ian Baynham, who was brutally attacked in September and died as a result of his injuries, will be buried today, almost 2 months after his death.

When I heard of the attack against Ian I was, like most, shocked/upset/ angry, a mixture of emotions. How could something like this still be happening and not only in London (one of the most diverse cities in the world) but in Central London? Ian Baynham wasn’t attacked close to some suburban shopping centre but a stones throw from one of England’s most famous landmarks –Nelsons Column.

Before I could fully absorb what had happened news came of another horrific assault, this time against trainee PC James Parks in Liverpool. The 22-year-old was set upon by around 13 teenagers and I understand he is still in hospital.

Thankfully the police were very quick to act on both attacks and had quickly arrested a number of suspects. I’ve heard many stories in the past of how unhelpful the police are towards homophobic crime but this seemed to be something they wanted to rectify and they had won my admiration. The gay community on the offer hand didn’t.

I had the privilege of helping to organise the anti-hate vigil that took place in Trafalgar Square on Friday 20th October where an estimated 10,000 people attended. This is a fantastic number especially in the short time it was organised but my question is; why was it only 10,000?

I was truly saddened when I spoke to so many gay people who simply couldn’t be bothered to attend. One guy at my gym said he couldn’t make as he had a party later that night. A PARTY!!!! What the fuck? I was also surprised by how many people not only didn’t know about the vigil but had no knowledge about the attacks either. Does no gay man read something other than the club pages of QX? It appears not, an article on Homovision.TV showed that around 70% of those they questioned had no about the attack on Ian Baynham.

We talk often about the gay ‘community’ but it seems that away from club land this doesn’t exist. I would have thought, I would have hoped, that after the attack in Nelson Column, where many gay men pass through on their way home that a number much larger than 10,000 would have stood side by side. Whilst I love the party world and the gay hub that is Soho, there is a world outside it and we should all remember this.

Related articles by Zemant

Vigil at scene of anti-gay attack (news.bbc.co.uk)