Breaking…
If you’re writing an article for Gawker about how Anderson Cooper goes to the gayest gym in New York, you have a couple options for the accompanying pic. The obvious choice would be to find a picture of Anderson Cooper looking super gay:
But Anderson is a total metrosexual, so while all pictures of him look sorta gay, none of the easily available pictures of him really POPS out at you.
Your second option is to go to flickr.com and search for “gay gym.” I think we know which way this guy went:
Hat tip to the Evil Queen for sending this along.
-Hip E.
Update: I sent this letter to Choire Sicha, the editor of Gawker. So this is what 15 minutes is like.
Hello Choire,
First off, I would like to identify myself as the man doing bicep curls in your gayest gym in New York post. Second, I would like to say that I am honored that out of all the flickr photos that you could’ve chosen to represent the concept of a gay gym, you chose that one.
Things being as they are, I thought you might enjoy the back story of this photograph. It was taken in February 05 on our front porch in San Francisco (shocking, I know). There was an open house across the street for a building that was being converted into 1BR Condos, so traffic was heavy; Mercedes and Bimmers double parked up and down the street. We probably would have behaved ourselves if it weren’t for the realtor giving us frequent dirty looks from across the street. We felt slighted, as we were just trying to enjoy the first nice day of the year. There wasn’t even a beer can visible. But her constant ice-grilling got our blood up, and we decided to do the following:
Get beers.
Strip down to our underwear.
Put on some Bon Jovi.I’m not exactly sure how the weights appeared, but I remember standing there in my white briefs, doing curls, and yelling “Welcome to Russian Hill! You’ll love it here!” to everyone who glanced our way. Most people found this amusing, some even engaged us in conversation, or told their young children to wave hello.
Except for the realtor. I don’t think she possibly could have been less amused. But I don’t know what she was worried about. At 550k, those condos were a steal, and considering it was San Francisco, we probably incited a bidding war.
Oh, and none of us are gay. We just enjoy getting naked or semi-naked in public. It’s kind of our thing. We have maintained a blog about our exploits since September of 2004, laboring in obscurity for our 50 or so daily readers.
Anyhow, you totally made our day. If you so choose, photo credit can go to [Sweet Linda].
Also, there are several serendipitous side stories here. One, I am a former Huffington Post editor. I worked in the LA office in Arianna’s house. Given Gawker’s frequent mentions of its nerdy new media cousin, I thought you’d find that amusing. Arianna shot down my idea to do a “Men of the Huffington Post” calendar, but it would’ve sold briskly.
Two, this picture was taken shortly after I wrote a piece for the fledgling Gridskipper. I wound up writing a couple before the editor changed.
Combined with the job offer I just accepted this afternoon, this is shaping up to be one of the best days in recent memory.
Thanks again.
PETE
-PETE
17 responses so far ↓
Magda // Jun 14, 2007 at 5:23 pm
I think that picture might have made my hangover worse.
Thrill // Jun 14, 2007 at 6:22 pm
You have incredible vision, Magda… I can barely even SEE Sean Finn in the background.
Kyle // Jun 14, 2007 at 6:31 pm
You’re welcome, all. Though I have no definitive evidence that I played any part in this flagrant dissemination of man-on-stoop porn, I like to think that some wag at Gawker did a Vox tag search for “underwear” and “barbell” and found, well….
http://tinyurl.com/3xoueb
D’you think, PETE, Johnny D and I could share the same Gayest Gym membership card?
Jonah // Jun 14, 2007 at 6:56 pm
*******, wow! That’s awesome….
Hip. E or Pete, can you give a yay or nay to Cormac McCarthy? He’s like the intellectual’s Dan Brown these days, and I wanna know if I should take the plunge.
Kyle // Jun 14, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Oh, and by the way:
A) Anderson Cooper is too gay.
and
2) Congrats to Hip E. for actually tagging this picture in Flickr appropriately, which I totally neglected.
Linda // Jun 14, 2007 at 8:21 pm
That is FANTASTIC photography.
Also just noticed the “currently eating” and it is good.
And also just read that Hip E used to be “whipped.” Used to? He’s totally still whipped (by Shark).
Hip E. // Jun 14, 2007 at 9:02 pm
Yeah, that pic is currently the #3 result in a flickr search for “gay gym”. So I’m guessing that’s most likely how gawker found it. And it’s 1000 times gayer than any of the other ones.
Cormac McCarthy –
Funny you should ask, Jonah. Blood Meridian was my favorite book of all time for about 4 or 5 years. It is his best book by far. I’ve read that, Child of God, All the Pretty Horses, The Crossing, and No Country for Old Men. I just started The Road. Blood Meridian is just a monster of a book. It’s so violent that a lot of people just quit reading it. No Country for Old Men is good too, and it just got made into a Coen Brothers movie so you should read that before the movie comes out. The Road seems like another lock for Hollywood.
The sad thing about McCarthy is that I’ve gradually realized that he believes in God and he’s probably a Christian. From the excerpts and reviews of The Sunset Limited that I’ve seen, I would probably have to gouge my eyes out with a spoon after reading that.
Linda, nice picture. Let the record show, though, that Linda didn’t even strip down to her bra on the day in question.
Thrill // Jun 14, 2007 at 9:37 pm
Let the record show that you obviously didn’t move your eyebrows enough.
The Big Kat // Jun 15, 2007 at 2:31 am
Knowing the backstory for that picture, it never seemed too odd to me. Making an effort to look at it from a third-party perspective, I was instantly floored by its overt gayness. There’s Sean Finn, in a pirate hat. There’s Pete, with a molester moustache, doing light curls. Then there’s Johnny D, wearing a viking hat. Tenting. For the love of god he’s tenting. How could the common observer see this photo, especially when taken in the context of being in San Francisco as the tag states, and not assume that these three men just ran a multi-car train on one another and that they’re soon going back for more, as soon as they can decide who gets to be the caboose?
Hip E. // Jun 15, 2007 at 5:52 am
Big Kat! Wow, what a great day for the Jo-tel.
Gabbeh // Jun 15, 2007 at 1:49 pm
I want to do this shot with me, Raph, and Doug McCauley…the ORIGINAL Gay Gym.
Hip E. // Jun 15, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Jonah – I stayed up till 1 am last night reading The Road because I couldn’t put it down. My advice to you is, read The Road, then maybe No Country for Old Men, then Blood Meridian. Never read Child of God, it’s just not very good. The Road is going to make an awesome movie.
bmk12000 // Jun 16, 2007 at 2:42 am
i have “the road” on my kitchen table, every time someone sees it i get an oprah comment. i will read that next.
PETE // Jun 17, 2007 at 1:46 am
Luckily, Oprah was merciful this time and decided to only place a relatively easily removable “O” sticker on the paperback copy of The Road, rather than her usual, highly objectionable practice of actually printing the “O” on the cover, an especially reprehensible example of which is the three-book Faulkner set. Argh.
Also, I’ve read NCFOM, Blood Meridian, and Suttree, which I recommend reading in that order. I started The Road today and will most likely purchase and read Outer Dark before the summer sets.
Shark // Jun 17, 2007 at 4:36 am
I will now try to convey, in written-form, the inner turmoil that occured when I first noticed the Opera’s book club logo permanently affixed to the cover of new editions of Faulker’s The Sound and the Fury, As I Lay Dying, AND Light in August:
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOJOICU EICUEBIJC BEICI EBCIEBCIUEBCI BEICB BIEC IYEBCUIEBCIU FBIIIIITITIHBEIUCBEIUCHEIUHDI
yY*&^^*&!^W*&##^*&#E@^@FFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFAq
Hip E. // Jun 17, 2007 at 12:38 pm
I have some news for you guys. I’ll write a post about it.
Nona // Oct 22, 2008 at 11:22 am
Thanks for writing this.
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