The New York Times reviewed the True Colors tour, which came to Radio City Music Hall on Monday night, and gave tons of kudos to The Gossip, with brazen, plus-sized lesbian lead singer Beth Ditto at the forefront. (Ditto, who is American, is notorious in the UK for publicly criticizing waifishly thin bimbettes like Victoria Beckham):

For vocal incandescence, though, [the Dresden Dolls] couldn’t top Beth Ditto, whose band the Gossip delivered the night’s most unpolished and gripping performance. Backed by the guitarist Brace Paine and the drummer Hannah Billie, Ms. Ditto unleashed a bluesy yowl that sounded even bigger than the room. Their better tunes — like a heat-blasted disco-punk closer, “Standing in the Way of Control” — felt stranded between styles, and better for it.

The Times also approved of Erasure:

Erasure served up new and old material alike, and the crowd devoured both, probably because there isn’t much difference between the two. Singing “Sunday Girl,” the opening track from a new album, Andy Bell sounded roguishly smooth as always, and Vincent Clarke, standing at a keyboard, seemed characteristically disengaged. They sounded best in a one-two punch: “Chains of Love,” followed by “Love to Hate You.” Despite three superfluous backup singers, the group did its job with flair.

A huge new story in this week's New York magazine written by David France (a gay man) plows through all the ways people have attempted to determine if you can tell if someone is gay merely by physical characteristics. He leads off with a California psychologist who is - seriously - trying to determine if the direction of a man's hair whorl is an indicator of their sexual preference. (Gay guys apparently average 23 percent counterclockwise; the average for all men is 8 percent counterclockwise.)

He also references the age-old proposition that gay guys have bigger penises, and therefore represent a kind of hyper-masculine, hyper-feminine combination:

One study that supports the hyper-masculinity theory of male homosexuality involves penis size. An Ontario-based psychological researcher named Anthony Bogaert re-sorted Kinsey Institute data—in which 5,000 men answered detailed questions about their sex lives, practices, fantasies, and, it turns out, measurements of their erect organs—along sexual-orientation lines. Gay men’s penises were thicker (4.95 inches versus 4.80) and longer (6.32 inches versus 5.99). The measurements, it should be noted, were self-reported and perhaps involve reporting bias, but no one has done a study investigating whether gay men are more prone to exaggerating their assets, so, well, draw your own conclusions.

We'd love to believe it, but it sounds like pre-AOL inches to us. But, from voice pitch to thumbprint density, there is data out there to prove inherent biological differences. Hogwash? Or are they on to something?

Attn all New Yorkers! This just in from our friends at hottie underwear line 2(x)ist for tomorrow morning:

2(x)ist PRESENTS WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE

MEN IN UNDERWEAR TO SERVE FREE JAVA TO NEW YORKERS!

What: Models dressed in 2(x)ist underwear will serve FREE cups of Joe to wake up New Yorkers who pass each of the 2(x)ist coffee kiosks.

When: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - 7 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Where: 39th Street and 7th Ave, and a number of possible surprise locations

Hot times, summer in the city!

Last week, we threw our big LA Pride kick-off bash at The Factory in West Hollywood, sponsored by Diet Pepsi and Absolut. The Factory is a big space, but it was packed to the walls with cute partygoers. Momma and Survivor's JP Calderon (who came out in Instinct a few months back) raffled off a ton of prizes, and the night was topped off with an Andrew Christian underwear/sportswear fashion show with some of the hunkiest models anywhere... take a look for yourself!