Friday, March 30, 2007

Would-Be President Al Goldstein on SSM


Al Goldstein's running for U.S. President is certainly no more absurd than Sam Brownback's doing the same. What's absurd is that an aging ex-porn king is lower down the list than arguably our most bigoted and dumbest U.S. Senator in decades.

Warning: If you click through to Alvin's campaign site, be aware that his platform is mildly obscene and the home page features vintage nudity including him.

If you need to know why I even care or mention it, you should also be aware that I knew him and even did a little work for his rags. Also, he has taken a position on same-sex marriage. That follows.

Apparently, I'm one of the few who has a kind word or more to write about him. At 70 or 71, he still revels in unrepentant sexuality and sexism and his opening campaign blurb frames him:
Why he's running:
Everyone knows politics is a dirty business. Who better to run than a veteran of an even dirtier business?
So, Al is still clever and he's bright, crudely funny and insatiably curious.

You don't have to go to his lewd main site to catch his YouTube vids of his positions or at least slurs on Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, racism, George Bush, Iraq, and same-sex marriage.

Perhaps a transcript of the quintuple divorce veteran on SSM will be plenty. He must have seen the coverage in the gay press from the anti-marriage folk to lead him to quip:
Gay marriage should be permitted as much as heterosexual marriage, because the ultimate perversion is not the homosexuality but the marriage. Marriage is impossible because people change and monogamy is an absurd, fallacious philosophy. I'm opposed to marriage, but if a gay person wants to marry, let him suffer too.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the serial marrier's campaign lists an adult search engine as its sponsor.

My full disclosure is a bit shadier than those of bloggers who are on the payroll of the Boston Globe. I did a little work for Al in the 1970s when his Milky Way Productions ran tabs named Screw, Smut, Gay and Bitch. I did some photography, reporting and a play review or two (very off-off Broadway) for Screw and Gay. As well as seeing him at his Union Square office, I had dinner with him a few times.

The man appreciated and understood food. He could overeat and was embarrassed when he was chubby. He looks trim enough to fit the norms of the simple-minded trend followers now.

Oddly enough, something I remember vividly was his fascination for electronics and mechanics. Before personal computers, there were numerous adult toys that had nothing to do with sex. They were for proto-geeks such as Al, business types and hobbyists alike. Al even put out a short-lived and very unsexual magazine, Gadget, to review and revel in his early adopter gimmicks and geegaws.

Apparently, he's still offensive and still loving being so. He's never been dull.

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