Nelson's Weblog: culture / butt-magazine

You know the old joke about Playboy magazine, about how he "reads it for the articles"? It's funny because it's true. That's what Butt Magazine is like, only instead of cheesy airbrushed naked chicks paired with faux-sophisticate culture it's slightly gritty naked guys with faux-casual sophisticated culture. It feels like a well produced zine, with a very personal editorial slant. Instead of the usual hairless-youth or bearish-30something mindless gay crap it's more hipster, nerdy.

Butt started as a magazine published in Amsterdam in 2001. What's remarkable about it are the interviews: Casey Spooner, Matmos, Michael Stipe, Martin DeGville (Sigue Sigue Sputnik). Fashion and art too: Marc Jacobs, Roger Payne, Matthias Vriens, Gus Van Sant, Edmund White (a particularly good one). Some straight out porn: Peter Berlin and Bruce LaBruce. I also love their random other interviews: Julian Ganio "the gereontophile poster boy of the London scene", Perez Hilton, Gore Vidal. Their interview style is very personal, simultaneously casual and way more revealing than the usual garbage. It's thoughtful journalism. The photos are good too, particularly the non-porny erotic shots, although their insistence of publishing on pink newsprint makes it hard to really enjoy the detail.

Sadly, Butt is going on a bit of sabbatical so now isn't a great time to subscribe. I can strongly recommend the Butt Book, though, a compilation of the best articles from the first 17 issues. The main website is interesting too, they've gone a bit bloggy.

I've mostly gotten bored with being gay. Gay overculture doesn't interest me, it's too vapid and too cruising focussed. Butt reminds me of the interesting part of being a sexual outsider.

culture
2010-06-08 22:14 Z


Mastodon @nelson@tech.lgbt Linkblog Wed 2024-11-20 Francis Williams painting The Platonic Blow Tue 2024-11-19 EmojiRain Bantam Tools Artframe Using OSM vector tiles Starlink sold out Fine-tuning LLMs at home Bluesky starter packs Mon 2024-11-18 Carbon Mapper Sun 2024-11-17 Love, Acceptance, and Screeching Modems Voyager 1 backup radio Gay Tblisi Usenet feed growth Methane mapping City99 console font Sat 2024-11-16 Lorraine Gervais Sill Justin's Linklog Thune 2004 blog campaign Fri 2024-11-15 Open source garage door Search Archives 2023 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2022 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2021 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2020 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2019 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2018 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2017 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2016 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2015 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2014 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2013 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2012 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2011 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2010 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2009 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2008 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2007 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2006 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2005 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2004 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2003 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2002 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 2001 12 11 10 09 08 07 One good site MDN Nelson Minar nelson@monkey.org Blog licensed under a Creative Commons License		Butt Magazine You know the old joke about Playboy magazine, about how he "reads it for the articles"? It's funny because it's true. That's what Butt Magazine is like, only instead of cheesy airbrushed naked chicks paired with faux-sophisticate culture it's slightly gritty naked guys with faux-casual sophisticated culture. It feels like a well produced zine, with a very personal editorial slant. Instead of the usual hairless-youth or bearish-30something mindless gay crap it's more hipster, nerdy. Butt started as a magazine published in Amsterdam in 2001. What's remarkable about it are the interviews: Casey Spooner, Matmos, Michael Stipe, Martin DeGville (Sigue Sigue Sputnik). Fashion and art too: Marc Jacobs, Roger Payne, Matthias Vriens, Gus Van Sant, Edmund White (a particularly good one). Some straight out porn: Peter Berlin and Bruce LaBruce. I also love their random other interviews: Julian Ganio "the gereontophile poster boy of the London scene", Perez Hilton, Gore Vidal. Their interview style is very personal, simultaneously casual and way more revealing than the usual garbage. It's thoughtful journalism. The photos are good too, particularly the non-porny erotic shots, although their insistence of publishing on pink newsprint makes it hard to really enjoy the detail. Sadly, Butt is going on a bit of sabbatical so now isn't a great time to subscribe. I can strongly recommend the Butt Book, though, a compilation of the best articles from the first 17 issues. The main website is interesting too, they've gone a bit bloggy. I've mostly gotten bored with being gay. Gay overculture doesn't interest me, it's too vapid and too cruising focussed. Butt reminds me of the interesting part of being a sexual outsider. culture 2010-06-08 22:14 Z Nelson's Weblog • culture → blogs, books, design, food, games, movies, music, olympics, processing, travel, tv