(JESSE on the BRINK) Rotto Swim… and quokka selfie!

 

by Jesse Archer

I jumped at the opportunity to join three girlfriends for a relay ocean swim from Perth to Rottnest Island. The Rottnest Channel Swim is 20+ kms across notoriously shark-infested waters... to the island home of the adorable marsupial, the quokka.

(JESSE on the BRINK) 2015: What a Year!

2015 was a Great Year for Jesse Archer and you can tell from his adventures and here's to 2016! Here are Jesse's Top 5 posts based on page views!

1) #JeSuisCharlie #Liberte #Solidarite! 

2) Call Me Unconvinced! 

3) Gross Out Grows Up This! 

4) Hoosier Hospitality? 

5) Holding Out for a Hero!

(JESSE on the BRINK) C U Next Tuesday!

by Jesse Archer

Allison Lane is unstoppable! Her YouTube Channel, See You Next Tuesday, is going off every week with something new and witty and wonderful.. and wrong! Her parodies have been picked up in a ton of outlets and her audience keeps growing. You may remember her from Going Down In La La Land, and she also has a part in the upcoming Kiss Me Kill Me. In the meantime, she is rocking her channel (subscribe in the link above). Here are a few of my favs.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Gross Out Grows Up This!

by Jesse Archer

This just totally made my day. Garbage Pail Kids -- WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

I love this concept of updating my favorite 80s card collectibles -- themslves a twisted take on those cloying, creepy adoptable Cabbage Patch Kids. Check out the creator's blog for behind-the-scenes of the sick and twisted nostalgia.

(JESSE on the BRINK) Call Me Unconvinced!

by Jesse Archer

Caitlyn Jenner's historic cover is a watershed moment in trans coverage and visibility. There is nothing more important in life than making others feel less alone. She has made countless marginalized others feel less alone and undoubtedly has and will save lives. For this she is a hero, but her personal integrity has yet to be confused with any altruism or activism for the greater good.

Her conservative votes keep in power those who refuse to pass legislation protecting her most vulnerable sisters - those fired from jobs, homeless, enduring survival sex, without access to legal hormones; the ones injecting motor oils into their body who aren't white or privileged or assisted by Annie Leibovitz to achieve their ideal. She's a hero, and perhaps that is enough, but until she's a champion my admiration is qualified.

Her son, Burt, sums it up for me: "I have high hopes that Caitlyn is a better person than Bruce."

(JESSE on the BRINK) Hoosier Hospitality?

by Jesse Archer 

Indiana Governor Mike Pence last week signed the The Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law. This law institutionalizes intolerance in Indiana – although it's the religious who are shouting about not being tolerated. The RFRA allows Indiana businesses to refuse service to certain individuals by citing their "deeply held religious views". Here is Mike Pence signing this bill into law, surrounded by nuns, Friar Tuck, butter churning prairie pastors and homophobes (one shown here equates gays with bestiality). Is this how you want your lawmakers to look like?


Say you want to patronize a business that purports to serve the public in Indiana. But the bigot owner of the business doesn't like that you are gay. Or Muslim. Or black. Or a divorced woman. Or they just don't like the look of you. They can now cite their beliefs and tell you that you are not welcome. Go find that other water fountain marked "sinner". This bill is nothing but updated (if you can call this regression an update) segregation.

And Pence is facing the justified wrath of not only equality-minded citizens, but major corporations including Apple, Salesforce, the NCAA, now even a boycott by the state of Connecticut. Nobody is telling the deeply religious that they can't practice their faith. Nobody is suggesting they cannot follow the dictates of their god, but here's a tip: if you want to serve only those who think, walk, talk and believe the same as you – do not purport to serve the public. Not that anyone would want to patronize a business that might turn them away because you don't share the same belief system, but how are we supposed to know before being turned away in hurt and humiliation?

(JESSE on the BRINK) Holding Out for a Hero!

by Jesse Archer
Via The Advocate

On the otherwise ordinary summer morning of December 15, 2014, an unprecedented terror gripped Sydney. In the heart of the city’s business district, an unhinged Islamic radical named Man Haron Monis strode into a Lindt chocolate cafe with a sawed-off shotgun, took 18 people hostage, and began an anguishing 16-hour standoff. Australian police forces stormed the cafe in the early hours of the next day, but by then the cafe’s manager, Tori Johnson, had been killed.

Because of an ongoing investigation, there are no formal accounts of exactly what transpired in the tense lead-up to the tragedy’s climax, but unconfirmed media reports indicate that Johnson was killed after attempting to wrestle the gunman for control of the weapon. In the final blitz, another hostage, a barrister named Katrina Dawson, was killed in the hailstorm of bullets. It was quickly reported that she was married with three young children, and that Johnson had a “partner” of 14 years. Then we waited, or at least I did, to find out whether his long-term partner was a man.

(JESSE on the BRINK) The World's Last Pen Pals!

by Jesse Archer

In 1988, I wrote to the Australian consulate fishing for a pen pal. I was in love with marsupials, and I also hated my life and constantly thought of far-flung lands, far away from the war zone of Fowler Junior High. I received my very first letter from Merryn in March of that same year, and we wrote furiously back and forth across the Pacific, sometimes every single day. I couldn't wait to race home after school because opening the mailbox to find her letters was the highlight of my day.

Reading about life on a 2,580-acre sheep farm in Armidale, NSW gave me a glimpse outside the hell I was living and allowed me to imagine I might one day escape. She wrote about riding horses past roos, gum trees and noisy galahs, and always how Presbyterian Ladies College was screwing her up. She'd nobly try to convince me that working at McDonalds was not uncool in Oz, or that I shouldn't commit suicide but wait and do it later because just think how much worse life will be at like age 24. We'd sign our letters "friends forever" and I'd receive awesome mix tapes with songs by stars no American had heard of: Johnny Diesel, Jason Donovan, Bros, Kylie Mole and Minogue…

(JESSE on the BRINK) War Paint!

by Jesse Archer

This is very cool. I'm so honored that artist Paul Richmond has painted me for his series, War Paint. I can always count on Paul's talents to make me better looking than I am! This portrait is titled, His Darkness.

Check it out on Paul's website here. "They understand too well the liberation into savagery that the concealing paint brought." – Lord of the Flies, William Golding.

These are the reference photos I sent him a few months ago, so you can see how he improved upon the original. I'm also totally digging the background fleur de lis pattern he created.

(Jesse on the Brink) Aussie Summer!

by Jesse Archer

What's the best thing to do when a blizzard's not bearing down? Summer! Had a most magnificent weekend away with friends that first included a trip through the Royal National Park just south of Sydney. Inside is a beach, Watamola (I can only remember this Aboriginal word because it sounds like Guatemala with no G), that's on the ocean but has a lagoon on one side with cliff-jumping rocks!

(JESSE on the BRINK) Fresh Fruits!

by Jesse Archer

Arrrghhh, been a struggle to get into the new year. I might have overdone it at the totally amazing Tropical Fruits Festival up in rural Lismore, NSW, where Mardi Gras meets the State Fair! There were so many of our group camping together on the showgrounds it was almost a compound - with various glamping frills including luxurious blow up pools. 

It was a high concept party theme this year: Art Deco Dance. Jazz Age, but without the prohibition! Lots of Gatsby, flappers and after an agonising few months of deliberation, it was decided that we would go as an army of slutty Charlie Chaplins. Hats off to Denton for coming up with the costume. The worst part about it was having to be silent.

(JESSE on the BRINK) #JeSuisCharlie #Liberte #Solidarite!

by Jesse Archer

To be clear: If your god needs to be "avenged", your god is nothing but a pathetic baby and you its suckling slave. The assassination of 12 thinkers at the French satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, in Paris today is yet another outrageous attempt of radical Islam to dim the bulb of civilization. The only way to ensure there can be push back against barbarism is the unfettered freedom to question, criticize and, yes, lampoon your paranoid unscientific delusions. When are we going to be done saying religion is off limits? Nothing is sacred across all divides. Nothing, unfortunately, because we could all choose to sanctify, practice and worship love and kindness.

As to those suckling slaves, Salman Rushdie says it best. And he should know:

"Religion, a medieval form of unreason, when combined with modern weaponry, becomes a real threat to our freedoms. This religious totalitarianism has caused a deadly mutation in the heart of Islam and we see the tragic consequences in Paris today. I stand with Charlie Hebdo, as we all must, to defend the art of satire, which has always been a force for liberty and against tyranny, dishonesty and stupidity.

(JESSE on the BRINK) 2014: What a Year!

2014 was a Great Year for Jesse Archer and you can tell from his adventures and here's to 2015! Here are Jesse's Top 5 posts based on page views!

1) Malta Mia (SEPTEMBER)

2) Can You Joke About AIDS? (JULY)

3) Weekend Tripping! (JUNE)

4) A Big Birthday. I survived! (JULY)

5) Alone At The TOP! (JANUARY)

(JESSE on the BRINK) Paul Richmond Takes Two!

by Jesse Archer

Artist Paul Richmond is always up to something imaginative. I was honored to be featured in his male take on female pinups in his Cheesecake Boys series here, and I recently posed again for his War Paint series (take a look at the others on his website). He's already done the base coat of mine and shared these pics of the work in progress. So great. Later I'll be sure to post the originals I sent, and more about his series....

(JESSE on the BRINK) Fairy Godmother!

by Jesse Archer

Look at this gorgeous little guy. His name is Yonah Madison. I was honored when his mother asked me to be his Godfather; I even went into a church for his baptism and have a certificate to prove it

Because he is heaven and I'm his Fairy Godmother, I had a star in the solar system named after him (with the coordinates RA: 1h8m35.4s DEC: -10°10m56.0s, if you're near a telescope) yeah, you can do that – he has a certificate to prove it!

"No man ever followed his genius til it misled him." – Thoreau.

So follow your genius, little man, wherever it may lead you!

(JESSE on the BRINK) Atlantis Cruise - Mediterranean: the parties! Plus, Goodnight, Joan!

by Jesse Archer

I was a little concerned about doing an Atlantis Cruise, thought I might feel trapped or something -- imagine! Despite a hideous cruise director, Malcolm, it was all very duck to water fabulous. Everything here is catered to the audience: from the entertainers to the parties, even walking to your room - no Burt Bacharach playing this week; now it's Kylie Minogue. And the Celebrity Equinox staff were loving this charter. They usually deal with fat families and geriatrics and now they're staying up all night dancing and taking lots of "you will never believe this" photos. Bam took a tour of the ship, and they told him the gay cruise eats less but drinks FOUR times as much as straight ones -- in fact, the ship doesn't have enough space to store all the booze.

So here's where all that booze went! A few weeks before sailing, they send a list of theme parties - and everyone goes all out in the dress up department. Nothing like being dressed up and dancing with all your friends as you sail across the Mediterranean.

Of course we ended in the pool. Anita caught pneumonia before the trip was through -- apparently pnuemonia is also known as excessive partying.

Anita brought a gaggle of friends from NYC who are Broadway and American Ballet Theatre dancers. We called them the "joy boys" and they were very popular!

Wayne's luggage was lost by Lufthansa --- and all his hand luggage was nothing but costumes. He had no boy clothes at all, just the one outfit he flew in - but he at least had his wig and cha-cha heels!! 

His luggage caught up with us in Sicily, but Lufthansa was giving him a per day clothing allowance, so let's just say he was running in the opposite direction of his suitcase.

(Jesse On The Brink) Malta Mia!

by Jesse Archer

Been nearly a month, and what a month... the incredible Atlantis Cruise across the Mediterranean with my very bestest friends from all over the world. First stop, MALTA. They said entering the harbor at Valletta is one of the world's most impressive sailing experiences -- and no kidding.

It's an ancient historical town that was conquered by just about everyone from the Knights Templar to Napolean. The Ottomans 1565 "seige of Malta" they're still talking about. Malta lies in a super strategic position, and also suffered terribly in WW2 bombings -- but every building is still in the same uniform camel color -- even if built in 1982, it still matches the same period and color -- which is just uniformly impressive and so stylistically old world.

(JESSE on the BRINK) A Big Birthday. I survived!

by Jesse Archer

Living the philosophy "here for a good time, not a long time", I have to acknowledge that turning 40 is more miracle than milestone. And somehow I have managed to outlive the world's most important poets. Jesus. Rimbaud. And this year, the great Anna Nicole Smith.

Thankfully tons of friends were on hand to celebrate, and we won't stop for at least another few months. First up, I always wanted to do laser tag since I was a kid.

Laser Fag!

(JESSE on the BRINK) Can You Joke About AIDS?

by Jesse Archer

That's the topic of my latest essay for this month's OUT Magazine, which you can read here. I lost a few 'friends' after asking for AIDS jokes online and also in my research I found some seriously sick humor coming from those right at the center of the epidemic. As I get older, I find my writing is less strident, which hopefully doesn't mean less persuasive, but by the end of the piece I don't really want readers to know where I stand on making AIDS jokes (but of course you know where I stand).

Illo by Edel Rodriguez

(JESSE on the BRINK) You Buy DNA Magazine for the Articles, Right?

by Jesse Archer

It's more than meets the eye in DNA Magazine Australia this month! In researching the life of Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, I discovered that his untimely death by "cholera" is, actually, a chilling whodunit – with the victim himself a prime suspect.

I wrote that feature, followed by an interview with groundbreaking Swan Lake choreographer Matthew Bourne and a roundup of the world's best strip joints, er, nude beaches. There are also amazing reads on our electroshocking past, the transgressive word police, Australia vs Marriage Equality by Nicholas Fonseca, gorgeous Tasmania by Marc Andrews and then, you know, just to rest your eyes, ogle cover god Todd Sanfield for first time in the Virgins, shot by Kevin McDermott.