Confessions of a Beefmeister

Okay, I admit it. I'm guilty. That's right, I readily admit that I have rented and/or sat through movies I cared nothing about, just to get to the beefcake. I have no regrets. Don't look at me like that, I'm sure you've done it before too. I know for a fact some of my friends have done it. My friend, Nathan, for example, just admitted that he's actually going to pay money to go see Halle Barry's new litterbox fodder, Cat Woman. But who am I to scoff, I've sat through worse. Much worse. At least his movie will have big name stars, cutting-edge special effects and a budget that rivals The Matrix. While, the movies I've sat through were lucky if they got on set catering from the likes of Hot Pockets.

Growing up gay in a small town, surrounded by less-than-accommodating hicks, kinda limits your access to gay-themed movies, much less all-male action. I had to be creative and just a little bit sneaky. Having a muscle/bodybuilder fetish early on, I'd rent movies like:

• Ator The Fighting Eagle

• Hercules In New York

• Deathstalker

• Campus Man

• HUNK

• IronMaster

• Stay Hungry

• Killer Workout

As you can see, more than a few of them were those godawful "sword and sandal"-type movies and a couple of them starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has masterful pecs, but whose mentality is for the birds. But then who really cares how big a hot guy's brain is? Looking back at some of them, I realize how my tastes have evolved over time and also come to the realization just how bad 80's hair really was. I still buy/rent the occasional movie for the voyeur in me, but I've noticed that more and more of the actors I like, leave me cold in the bod department, but have beautiful faces and/or aspects to their personalities: Vince Vaughn, Richard Gere, Jude Law, Antonio Banderas, Johnny Knoxville, Craig Bierko, Nicholas Brendon, Carson Daly (I know. Everyone thinks he's a tool), Eminem, etc. Don't get me wrong, I still like the bods, but the faces & personalities seem to have moved up on the priorities list. Who knows, maybe I'm evolving.