Big Gay Frat House Blog

Should we revive the Cosmique Movie Awards?

Several years ago, I created the Cosmique Movie Awards at an Academy Awards party as a way for me and my friends to react to the awards. Many Oscars parties have contests where guests could vote for who they thought would win. But I was actually much more interested in who they wanted to win ... and what other categories they would add, if they could. 

Our voters were originally intended to be members of our Mardi Gras krewe, the Cosmique Krewe of Colour. But even from the start, other friends were invited. Our voters were largely gay and lesbian, but not exclusively so and plenty of straight friends participated. The vast majority of us live in the San Francisco Bay Area, but certainly not all of us. We tend to be more liberal by national standards, I suppose, though no formal political poll has ever been taken. We tend to have a fairly high geek quotient among our ranks. And that, I suppose, has impacted our results in ways that differ from the Academy. Brokeback Mountain won Best Film in its year. Shortbus, largely ignored by every other awards show, received 11 nominations and won five of them.

Some of our categories were serious, like Best Film and Best Actor. Some were completely irreverent, like Actor's Character You Would Most Like to be Intimate With. I liken it to combining the gravitas of the Academy Awards with the irreverence of the MTV Movie Awards.

The awards fell off for several years. What do you think? Should we revive them? Have you voted before? Would you like to vote? Check out the Cosmique Movie Awards website and blog to learn more about it, and then fill out our survey to give us your thoughts.

By the way, all of the demographics questions, like all of the questions, are completely optional. Really, it's just curiosity.

Thanks!

Go-Go Boy Profile: Justin

Since Kevin is San Francisco's (and maybe the world's) most prolific photographer of go-go boys, with 5,524 go-go boy photos on Flickr to date, it seemed fitting for us to do a new periodic feature profiling some of the go-go boys we know. And who better to kick it off than Justin, the very first go-go boy Kevin ever hired for an event?

Kevin first met Justin when he was working as a go-go dancer/shot boy at Faggot First Wednesday, a once-a-month club that Culture Whores once held at 440 Castro. (You can read Kevin's interview with club promoter Scott Brown about Faggot and his short-lived Attention Deficit Disco, which was published on Gay.com: "Attention Deficit Disco: a new scene for the iPod Generation").

In the fall of 2005, Kevin began to prepare for Epiphany 2006, the first major party ever held at the Big Gay Frat House. The party was epic, with a staff of three bartenders, three floaters, and five go-go boys, all ranging from scantily-clad to completely unclad. Justin was the first recruit (though not the least dressed); Kevin hired him by slipping his business card into Justin's underwear at 440 and asking to hire him for a private event. And thus, though there were five go-go boys at Epiphany, Justin will go down in history as the very first go-go boy ever hired by the Big Gay Frat House.

Justin continues to work for Culture Whores at their newest event, Cock Fight, held on the third Saturday of every month at Underground SF. He can also be seen out and about in his undies or a jockstrap at a variety of other events, working at a shot boy sometimes at Truck, at some of Juanita More and Joshua J's events like Booty Call and Big Top, and as a featured player at Steamworks' Naked Twister at the Dore Alley and Folsom Street Fairs. You can also check out a cute interview that the SF Bay Guardian once did with him. (Gay.com did one, too, but the whole content channel that it was in has subsequently been dismantled.) But most fun of all: here's a slideshow of some of our favorite photos featuring Justin. (Of course, there are more on Flickr, but you have to turn off SafeSearch to see the scantily-clad ones.)

Cosmique Movie Awards

For many years, Kevin conducted an annual movie awards with his friends called the Cosmique Movie Awards. The awards honored the very best (and worst) of cinematic achievement from the previous calendar year but also inducted new films and actors into a Lifetime Achievement Hall of Fame.

Voting was conducted by an invited group of friends in two rounds. The first round was open-ended, with voters able to nominate whichever films or performances from the previous year that they wanted. They could choose up to five nominees per category and also had the option to designate one of them as a "power vote," giving it extra weight (passion counts). The top five nominees in each category were then presented back to the same pool of voters to determine the ultimate winner.

The awards were a blend of the gravitas of the Oscars (with categories like Best Film and Best Actor) and the irreverence of the MTV Movie Awards (with categories like Worst Performance and Actor's Character You Would Most Like to be Intimate With).

Recently a few friends have suggested that the Cosmo Awards be revived. But if so, how? Should it remain limited to invited friends, or be opened up to anyone reached through the BGFH? Would you vote if allowed? Please share your thoughts both in the poll below as well as in the comments section.

Survey Results - GlowDay.com

Cosmique Movie Awards

Seven years ago, Kevin created the Cosmique Movie Awards, a movie awards that blends the gravitas of the Academy Awards with the irreverence of the MTV Movie Awards.

The first year, all of the awards were for Lifetime Achievements, with any film from any year or era eligible. After that, most of the categories focus on films from the preceeding calendar year, but a handful of Lifetime Achievement categories are used to honor the best films, actors, and actresses of all time.

Many of the categories are serious, like Best Film, Best Actor, Best Drama. But some are a little different (Best Queer Film, Best Female Villain)) and some are downright silly (like Best Cameo, Sexiest Ensemble, and Actor's Character You Would Most Like to be Intimate With).

The awards are chosen by more than 50 eligible voters. The first round is harder -- voters must come up with up to five nominees in each category from any eligible film released during the previous calendar year. (This ends up being harder that one might think; many voters end up making lists of films they saw to be able to check against during the nominations.)

In past years, Kevin inevitably saw more films than any other voter (including a record 94 films in 2004, his glorious year of unemployment). But these days, Kevin's busy! He's only seen 13 theatrically-released films that were released in 2006 that reported box office returns, and another six films that we will also count. Those films are:

Adam & Steve; Another Gay Movie; Blood Diamond; Casino Royale; The Conrad Boys; The Da Vinci Code; The Devil Wears Prada; Dreamgirls; Eating Out 2; Follow My Voice: With the Music of Hedwig; Jackass: Number Two; The Mostly Unfabulous Social Life of Ethan Green; Queer Duck: The Movie; Shortbus; Strangers with Candy; Superman Returns; Smalltown Gay Bar; and X-Men: The Last Stand

That leaves a lot of eligible 2006 films that Kevin hasn't seen. Two will definitely be seen soon; David owns John Tucker Must Die ad Kevin owns Pirates of the Caribbean 2, but neither have been watched yet. But of these 2006 films, which do you think Kevin should try to see before casting his nomination ballot:

10 Items or Less; 16 Blocks; 49 Up; Accepted; After Dark's Horror Fest: 8 Films to Die For; Akeelah and the Bee; Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker; All the King's Men; America: Freedom to Fascism; American Dreamz; American Hardcore; An American Haunting; Annapolis; The Ant Bully; Apocalypto; April's Shower; Aquamarine; Army of Shadows; Art School Confidential; Artie Lange's Beer League; Ask the Dust; ATL; Babel; Barnyard; Basic Instinct 2; Beerfest; Being Cyrus; The Benchwarmers; Bhagam Bhag; Big Momma's House 2; Black Christmas; The Black Dahlia; BloodRayne; Bobby; Bon Cop, Bad Cop; Borat; Boynton Beach Club; The Break-Up; Brick; The Bridge; Broken Bridges; Bubble; Cars; Catch a Fire; Cave of the Yellow Dog; The Celestine Prophecy; Changing Times; Charlotte's Web; Cheech; The Child; Children of Men; Chup Chup Ke; Church Ball; Clerks II; Click; Cocaine Cowboys; Color of the Cross; Come Early Morning; Confetti; Conversations with God; Conversations with Other Women; Copying Beethoven; The Covenant; Crank; Crossover; Curious George; Curse of the Golden Flower; Date Movie; Dave Chappelle's Block Party; Days of Glory; Death of a President; Deck the Halls; Deep Sea 3-D; Deja Vu; Deliver Us from Evil; The Departed; The Descent; The Devil and Daniel Johnston; Dhoom 2; Dirty; District B13; Don; Don't Come Knocking; Doogal; Down in the Valley; Drawing Restraint 9; Driving Lessons; Edmond; Eight Below; Employee of the Month; End of the Spear; Eragon; Everyone's Hero; Facing the Giants; Factotum; Failure to Launch; Fanaa; The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift; Fast Food Nation; Fateless; Feast; Final Destination 3; Find Me Guilty; Firewall; Flags of Our Fathers; Flicka; Flushed Away; Flyboys; For Your Consideration; The Fountain; Freedomland; Friends with Money; Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus; Gabrielle; Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties; Glory Road; Goal! The Dream Begins; The Good German; The Good Shepherd; A Good Woman; A Good Year; Grandma's Boy; The Great New Wonderful; Gridiron Gang; The Groomsmen; The Grudge 2; Guadalupe; The Guardian; A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints; Half Nelson; Happy Feet; Hard Candy; Harsh Times; Haven; Heading South; The Heart of the Game; The Hills Have Eyes; The History Boys; The Holiday; Hollywoodland; Hoodwinked; Hoot; Hostel; The House of Sand; How to Eat Fried Worms; Humko Deewana Kar Gaye; Ice Age: The Meltdown; Idiocracy; Idlewild; The Illusionist; Imagine Me and You; An Inconvenient Truth; Infamous; Inland Empire; Inside Man; Invincible; Iraq in Fragments; Jaan-E-Mann; Jesus Camp; Jet Li's Fearless; John Tucker Must Die; The Journals of Knud Rasmussen; Just My Luck; Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna; Kabul Express; Keeping Mum; Keeping Up with the Steins; The King; Kinky Boots; Krrish; La Moustache; La Mujer de Mi Hermano; Lady in the Water; Lage Raho Munna Bhai; The Lake House; Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector; Lassie; Last Holiday; The Last King of Scotland; The Last Kiss; Le Petit Lieutenant; Leonard Cohen I'm Your Man; Let's Go to Prison; Letters from Iwo Jima; Little Children; Little Man; Little Miss Sunshine; Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World; The Lost City; Loverboy; Love's Abiding Joy; Lucky Number Slevin; Malamaal Weekly; Man of the Year; Marie Antoinette; Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School; The Marine; Material Girls; Miami Vice; Mini's First Time; Mission: Impossible III; Monster House; My Super Ex-Girlfriend; Nacho Libre; Nanny McPhee; National Lampoon's Van Wilder: The Rise of Taj; The Nativity Story; Neil Young: Heart of Gold; Night at the Museum; The Night Listener; Night of the Living Dead; Night Watch; The Nightmare Before Christmas; Notes on a Scandal; The Notorious Bettie Page; The OH in Ohio; The Omen; Omkara; On a Clear Day; Once in a Lifetime; One Night with the King; Only Human; Open Season; Over the Hedge; The Painted Veil; Pan's Labyrinth; Peaceful Warrior; Perfume - The Story of a Murderer; Phat Girlz; The Pink Panther; Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; Poseidon; A Prairie Home Companion; Preaching to the Choir; The Prestige; The Promise; The Proposition; The Protector; The Puffy Chair; Pulse; The Pursuit of Happyness; Pyare Mohan; The Queen; The Quiet; Quinceanera; Rang De Basanti; The Real Dirt on Farmer John; Red Doors; The Return; The Road to Guantanamo; Rocky Balboa; Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss; Roving Mars; Running Scared; Running with Scissors; Russian Dolls; RV; The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause; Saw III; A Scanner Darkly; Scary Movie 4; School for Scoundrels; The Science of Sleep; Scoop; Screamers; The Second Chance; The Secret Life of Words; See No Evil; The Sentinel; Shaadi Karke Phas Gaye Yaar; Shadowboxer; The Shaggy Dog; Sherrybaby; She's the Man; Shut Up and Sing; Silent Hill; Sketches of Frank Gehry; Slither; Snakes on a Plane; Something New; Sophie Scholl - The Final Days; Stay Alive; Step Up; Steve Harvey's Don't Trip; Stick It; Stranger Than Fiction; Sweet Land; Take the Lead; Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby; Tamara; Taxi 9211; Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny; Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning; Thank You for Smoking; This Film Is Not Yet Rated; Time to Leave; Trailer Park Boys: The Movie; Tristan and Isolde; Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story; Trust the Man; Tsotsi; Turistas; Twelve and Holding; Two or Three Things I Know About Her; Tyler Perry's Madea's Family Reunion; Typhoon; The U.S. Vs. John Lennon; Ultraviolet; Umrao Jaan; Unaccompanied Minors; Underworld: Evolution; United 93; V for Vendetta; Venus; Viva Pedro!; Volver; Wah-Wah; Waist Deep; The War Tapes; Wassup Rockers; Water; We Are Marshall; The Wedding Curse; What the Bleep?: Down the Rabbit Hole; When a Stranger Calls; When Do We Eat?; Who Killed the Electric Car?; Why We Fight; The Wicker Man; The Wild; Wordplay; The Work and the Glory III: A House Divided; World Trade Center; You, Me and Dupree; Zinda; and Zoom

Lobby Kevin! What should he see?

Ethel Merman

Our dear friend Ethel Merman (you know, the younger one that sings Led Zeppelin) will be appearing on the Trans Stage at Pride this year.

Here Ethel Merman poses (on the left) in Kevin's library next to Greg the Gay Sportscaster of Energy 92.7 Radio and Empress XXX Donna Sachet at "A Balls-Out Ball," a fundraiser for the San Francisco Fog rugby team that we held in our house last April.

Ethel's alter ego Mark has the distinction of being the only voting member of the Cosmique Movie Awards to ever win an award. A few years ago when he was creating the Ethel persona and forming the band The Ethel Merman Experience, he posted an ad on Craigslist seeking backup bandmates. The ad was spotted by a documentarian who was collecting the most interesting posts that day and interviewing the subjects for his documentary, 24 Hours on Craigslist. The film went on to be nominated for Best Documentary (it lost to March of the Penguins), and Mark was nominated for -- and won -- Best Cameo.

(Mark's other persona, Janet Fly, is the reigning queen and 18th monarch of our Mardi Gras krewe, the Cosmique Krewe of Colour. More about that some other time.)

So anyway, catch Ethel if you can. She's scheduled to perform at 4:45 on Sunday, June 25th at the Trans Stage on Larkin between Turk and Golden Gate. And if you miss her there, maybe you can catch her on Sunday, July 29th at San Diego Pride, where she'll go on at 7:00 pm on the Buzz Great Lawn Stage.