(References to gay male life, men’s bodies, and mansex, so not suitable for kids or the sexually modest.)
Yesterday was my birthday, my 79th, 79 being, as I noted in a 8/29 posting for the day, a sexy prime. 8/29 is also, every year, National Coffee Ice Cream Day, and coffee is my favorite ice cream flavor. Put all this together and you get this birthday present, delivered by Kim Darnell yesterday:
(#1) Coffee ice cream, plus a selection of Big Gay Ice Cream flavors for Big Gay Arnold
This will take us to the pornstars of the end of summer, to Greenwich Village, and to South Park, with a final side trip to visit with the Marquis de Lafayette.
I might have been satisfied with some pleasurable moments with the boys of the end of summer, as paraded by Lucas Entertainment in a recent ad, cropped a bit here for modesty:
(#2) Welcome to the pleasuredome: studly and sturdy gay pornstars Arad Winwin, Rafael Alencar, and Edji Da Silva invite dickdevotees to celebrate the changing of the seasons with Lucas flicks, in particular with the recently released barebacking flick All-Star Orgy (fuller coverage in today’s posting on AZBlogX, “The boys of the end of summer”)
But that wouldn’t have been enough, so Kim provided not only coffee ice cream, but also a selection of Big Gay Ice Cream’s quirky flavors. As it happens, in my posting queue was an entertaining piece in the New York Times (on-line on 6/28), “How the Face of Big Gay Ice Cream Spends His Sundays”, with the subhead “Even though Doug Quint’s unicorn-and-rainbow brand has expanded to storefronts, the entrepreneur has not forgotten his food-truck roots. He still visits one in Red Hook, Brooklyn.” The story begins:
It’s been 10 years since Doug Quint parked his Big Gay Ice Cream Truck at the northwest corner of Union Square in Manhattan for the first time. This is where he and his business partner, Bryan Petroff, got their start selling wild concoctions like the American Globs, soft serve ice cream mixed with smashed, nearly burned pretzels and covered in chocolate dip. [At the time they were pursuing musical studies, as a bassoonist and flautist, respectively. There’s definitely an oral theme in there.]
“Pedestrians would look at the logo, and we would see them mouth or even say out loud, ‘Big Gay Ice Cream Truck,’” Mr. Quint said. But then they would try the ice cream. Now the company has four brick-and-mortar stores (three in New York City and one in Philadelphia) and offers pints featuring new flavors, like Banan-o-Gram, with caramelized bananas and a graham cracker swirl, in mainstream locations like CVS.
(#3) The shop in the West Village
Notes from the Wikipedia article on the company:
BGIC has an official theme song composed, and recorded by The Go-Go’s’ guitarist and singer/songwriter Jane Wiedlin. [Available for purchase on the usual sites, but I can’t play it for you here.]
… The use of gay in the name of the company has two meanings; referring both to the sexual orientation of co-founders Doug Quint and Bryan Petroff being gay, as well as simply happy. According to Quint: “If I weren’t gay, I wouldn’t call it the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. And if I weren’t happy, I wouldn’t have the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. It would just be the big crabby ice cream truck.”
Information about BGIC’s products, from various sites, mostly the company’s:
— available in pints (quirky products, goofy naming):
Blueberry Gobbler, American Globs, Dorothy, Birfdae Cëk, Rocky Roadhouse, Lunchbox, Flüffernütter, Spicy Choco-Lit, Banan-o-Graham
— descriptions for two of these whose names might not be informative to many customers:
Dorothy: Mix together thick swirls of dulce de leche and vanilla wafer cookie chunks into vanilla ice cream and you get our favorite gal pal, Dorothy. Are you a friend of Dorothy? Of course you are, and we thank you for being a friend. [on foD, see Dee Michel’s blog about his book Friends of Dorothy; and “Thank You For Being a Friend” is the theme song from the tv show Golden Girls, a great favorite of foDs, me included]
Lunchbox: … strawberry ice cream stuffed with strawberry-filled peanut-buttery cups surrounded by thick swirls of peanut butter.
— even more remarkable creations are available in the trucks and shops, which provide soft serve ice cream:
Cheetos-dipped soft serve
Salty Pimp: salty dark chocolate bar chunks and salty swirls of dulce de leche blended into creamy vanilla ice cream
Choinkwich: an ice cream sandwich with chocolate ice cream and a layer of bacon marmalade between two chocolate cookies)
Nuclear Winter: a sundae of chocolate ice cream, red chili roasted pistachios, sriracha, and Awesomesauce (spicy hot fudge) – served with a pickle
(I make no judgments here, but will only point out that combinations of sweet and savory can be surprisingly tasty.)
The Big Gay N trope. We start with conventionally hyperbolic big ‘hugely, quintessentially’, as in the movie title My Big Fat Greek Wedding and move on to big gay everything — Big Gay Ice Cream, yes, but more particularly the naming pattern Big Gay N, used for someone who’s over-the-top gay, just too gay for words, honey. The pop-culture icon of the type being Big Gay Al of the animated tv comedy South Park.
From the South Park fandom wiki:
(#4)
Big Gay Al is a stereotypical homosexual man who first appeared in the Season One episode, “Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride”. He known for his flamboyant and positive demeanor and usually responds to the greeting “How are you?” with an upbeat “I’m super! Thanks for asking!”
… He wears a pink Hawaiian shirt open at the top, exposing his left nipple, a blue neckerchief, and brown corduroy trousers. His skin is heavily tanned. Big Gay Al is thick set and has brown hair, eyelashes, a mustache, and very red lips. … He is a stereotypical homosexual: upbeat, happy, optimistic, and flamboyant.
[some significant appearances:]
“Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” – Al’s first appearance. He explains to Stan why it’s alright to be homosexual and takes Stan on the eponymous boat ride before disappearing.
“South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” – Al sings “I’m Super” at the USO show to entertain the soldiers, serving as an unintentional distraction.
“Cripple Fight” – Al is the Scouts Leader, until the club fires him for being gay, causing Stan, Kenny, Cartman, Butters, and Timmy to try to get him back as leader.
“Follow That Egg!” – Al gets engaged to Mr. Slave, against Mrs. Garrison’s wishes, and they wed at the end of the episode.
“The F Word” – Al leads the gay people to help the boys change the definition of “faggot” from gay people, to annoying Harley riders.
“The City Part of Town” – Seen with his husband Mr. Slave holding hands to make the town seem more diverse to the Whole Foods representative.
(The creators of South Park went to some trouble to seed all sorts of hugely gay stuff in the shows. For example: Big Gay Al sings in a production number, and the piano used in the number is very briefly shown to be a Felcher — like a Steinway, or a Bechstein — an allusion to a bit of vulgar sexual slang; from GDoS:
verb felch: (usu. gay) to lick out the semen from the anus of someone who has just enjoyed anal intercourse; the semen is then spat into the partner’s mouth [cites from the mid-20th century on] )
About his very first appearance, from Wikipedia:
“Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” is the fourth episode of the first season of the American animated television series South Park. It originally aired on September 3, 1997 on Comedy Central in the United States. The episode was written by series co-founders Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and directed by Parker. In this episode, Stan’s dog, Sparky, is revealed to be gay after humping a rival male dog. Under peer pressure, Stan tries to make him more masculine, and as a result, Sparky runs away and ends up at Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Animal Sanctuary. Stan comes to understand homosexuality and tries to make everyone in South Park accept it.
“Big Gay Al’s Big Gay Boat Ride” addressed open homosexuality in a way that was uncommon for television at the time [just 22 years ago], which created some anxiety among Comedy Central executives. The network initially objected to offensive remarks made by sports commentators in the episode, but the comments were kept in at the insistence of Parker and Stone. … The episode marked the first appearance of Big Gay Al.
Bonus: Lafayette. Like me, born on the 6th of September. A fine day to be born. The summary section of Wikipedia’s excellent article on the man and his almost unbelievable life story:
(#5) (From the Facebook page of the French Embassy in the U.S.)Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (6 September 1757 – 20 May 1834), known in the United States simply as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the Siege of Yorktown. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830.
Lafayette was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne in south central France. He followed the family’s martial tradition and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American revolutionary cause was noble, and he traveled to the New World seeking glory in it. He was made a major general at age 19, but he was initially not given American troops to command. He was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine but still managed to organize an orderly retreat, and he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he sailed for home to lobby for an increase in French support. He returned to America in 1780 and was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive Siege of Yorktown.
Lafayette returned to France and was appointed to the Assembly of Notables in 1787, convened in response to the fiscal crisis. He was elected a member of the Estates General of 1789, where representatives met from the three traditional orders of French society: the clergy, the nobility, and the commoners. After forming the National Constituent Assembly, he helped to write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with Thomas Jefferson’s assistance. This document was inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence and invoked natural law to establish basic principles of the democratic nation-state. He also advocated the end of slavery, in keeping with the philosophy of natural liberty. After the storming of the Bastille, he was appointed commander-in-chief of France’s National Guard and tried to steer a middle course through the years of revolution. In August 1792, radical factions ordered his arrest, and he fled into the Austrian Netherlands. He was captured by Austrian troops and spent more than five years in prison.
Lafayette returned to France after Napoleon Bonaparte secured his release in 1797, though he refused to participate in Napoleon’s government. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, he became a liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies, a position which he held for most of the remainder of his life. In 1824, President James Monroe invited him to the United States as the nation’s guest, and he visited all 24 states in the union and met a rapturous reception. During France’s July Revolution of 1830, he declined an offer to become the French dictator. Instead, he supported Louis-Philippe as king, but turned against him when the monarch became autocratic. He died on 20 May 1834 and is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Bunker Hill. He is sometimes known as “The Hero of the Two Worlds” for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States.
A man of enormous physical courage who took up the family military career at the age of 13 and later pursued an extraordinary public career devoted to advocating for democracy and human rights in two countries, and managed somehow to live to the age of 76.
One consequence of which is that my country is dotted with places named Fayette or Lafayette. Among them Fayette County KY (with Lexington as its county seat), where Ann Daingerfield Zwicky grew up.
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