Josh & Josh are Rich and Famous

Josh K: Sweden Pics, Plus Levi Johnston & eBay

While I hold down the fort in New York, our intrepid adventurer, Josh K, is on assignment for Passport magazine in Sweden, spending time both in Stockholm and in the north of Sweden at the famous Ice Hotel.

He's sent me a few iPhone pictures from his escapades abroad. Check 'em out:

Meanwhile, as Josh traverses Scandinavia, his hockey gear, which Levi Johnston wore in his now (in)famous Playgirl photo shoot, is now for sale on eBay and is garnering some nothing-to-sneeze-at bids.

See for yourself: The hockey pants ($602.25), the hockey stick ($275), the helmet ($102.50), the shoulder pads ($250), and the gloves ($250). (All bids here listed as of 4 p.m. EST Monday.)

That's nearly $1,500 for the lot. Crazy, huh? And there's still a few days left, too, before bidding closes.

While at work and play abroad, Josh's hockey gear is going to work for him. Not a bad deal at all, I'd say.

Josh & Josh On Tom Ford's New Film A Single Man

Just over a week ago Josh K and I had a chance to see a screening of clothing-designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford's new (and first) film A Single Man.

What did we think? Well, it's complicated.

The movie, based on a Christopher Isherwood novel of the same name, is set in 1962. (Isherwood's novel is on my list of books to read since seeing the movie.) The film follows college professor George Falconer (Colin Firth) through a single day of his life.

George, we learn early on, has recently received the news that his partner of 16 years, Jim, died in a car accident. There to comfort and tweak George, as friends are wont to do, is his best friend, Charley (Julianne Moore). In the meantime, one of George's college students, Kenny (Nicholas Hoult), seems to have taken a special interest in George. All of this is happening to George, of course, on a day in which he's not sure life is worth living anymore.

Josh and I both agreed that Tom's attention to detail, especially in regard to the clothes and surroundings appropriate for 1962, was meticulous. It's all perfectly rendered. It makes sense considering Tom's background as a fashion art director over the last few decades. (And you'll certainly note no lack of loving closeups on the clothes. I'll also confess that I wanted pretty much every outfit worn on screen.)

Josh K found Ford's fastidious and unwavering attention to detail a frequent distraction, while it didn't bother me quite as much. Josh and I are both huge fans of Mad Men, so we're familiar with great 60s Americana detail work, but in this case Josh K felt like all the detail in Single Man became a bit fussy and bothersome.

There were things that did take me out of the story of film, though, too--one scene with an extremely hot hustler (who must moonlight as a supermodel) took us both right out of the story for a few minutes. It was simply a case of too much being too much. But once the scene ended, I was back into the story; Josh K wasn't as easily won over, however, after that point.

The performances from Colin Firth and Julianne Moore, we both agreed, were fantastic. As many in the press are saying, this may well be Colin's best performance to date, in a career with quite a few plum roles. New York and Entertainment Weekly, among others, have even been whispering about Oscar possibilities. (Indeed, Colin already won Best Actor for the role at the Venice Film Festival. And the press overall for A Single Man, it should be noted, has been quite good.)

In the end, Josh and I diverged quite a bit in how we felt about A Single Man. Josh K felt that it was perhaps a very expensive art school film; I thought that, though there were a few distractions and bumps along the way, overall it was a worthwhile, sometimes moving portrayal of love and loss.

Josh and I agreed that we'd suggest friends see A Single Man--some of the visuals really are quite stunning, and Colin and Julianne are first-rate--and we're very curious to see what friends think of it, too.

[Watch the trailer here]

Have you seen the film? If so, please feel free to jump into the fray and tell us why you dug it, or didn't. We'd be curious to hear your perspective.

The New York Times weighs in: "While A Single Man has its flaws, many of these fade in view of the performance and the power of Isherwood’s story. Part of the radical importance of Isherwood’s novel is its insistence on the absolute ordinariness of George’s life, including with Jim, whose relationship together is pictured only briefly in both the novel and the film, and yet reverberates deeply (then as now). Mr. Ford’s single man might be less common than Isherwood’s, a bit too exquisitely dressed. But with Mr. Firth, Mr. Ford has created a gay man troubled by ordinary grief and haunted by joy, a man apart and yet like any other. Rated R, the film features a lot of smoking and drinking, the usual adult expletives and one startling urination fantasy." And yes, I especially love the humor of that last line.

COMING SOON Our interviews with the cast and director of A Single Man!

Barbara Walters Owes Adam Lambert And The Gay Community An Apology

I normally love Barbara Walters, and for years I've tuned into her annual 10 Most Fascinating People special. (I still remember the one where she interviewed Demi Moore during the Striptease years and Barbara asked Demi to teach her some stripping moves. Dear God, you know?)

Last night's edition, however, really got my blood boiling. Half-way through I was enraged and ready to go all Michael Moore on Barbara's ass and call ABC to try and hunt her down for a little corrective heart-to-heart chit chat.

Barbara opened the show with a great interview with the ever-amazing Lady Gaga.

Love, love, love Gaga. She is doing absolutely everything right with her career and has yet to make a single misstep.

Barbara? Not so much in that category. Especially once the Adam Lambert interview began.

Babs opened the Lambert segment by talking about his performance at the AMAs, which involved Adam briefly kissing a male keyboardist. She said the footage was too controversial to be shown again on her special.

What's the big problem?

The big problem is that during the Gaga interview Barbara showed music video footage of Gaga making out with a woman. Then Adam's interview came on, and suddenly the same-sex kiss is just way too hot for TV.

Oh hell no.

Pick one, Babs: either same-sex kisses are in, or they're not. Pick one, and stake your claim either on the side of homophobia or or the side of acceptance and cultural progress.

A few years ago the Britney and Madonna kiss was all over the front page of The Post and everyone feigeds shock while turning to page three for more details and pictures, but then Adam kisses a guy and that picture can't even be run in the papers, or shown on Barbara's end-of-the-year special after a same-sex female kiss was aired just minutes earlier?

Barbara owes Adam Lambert an apology, and she owes the gay community an apology.

And in that apology I hope she chooses to cop to the fact that the decisions she made on her special were both hypocritical and homophobic.

Advertising (Mama Needs a New Pair of Shoes!)

From The Vault: Josh H. Chats with Reese Witherspoon

A year ago today I lay on my bed in my (former) apartment in Brooklyn, clad in jammies with snacks at hand, and chatted with Reese Witherspoon on the phone.

Um, crazy, right?

Reese was promoting her new film at the time, Monsters vs. Aliens, and since I was on staff at a national parenting magazine, we spent a lot of time gabbing about her kids and her home life. She was incredibly sweet and open and only got warmer as the interview went on.

Wanna eavesdrop? Click the gray bar below to listen in. (I cut the interview down a few minutes, excising some of the less interesting parenting questions.)

Reese Witherspoon 120608

TABLE OF CONTENTS

0:48 | What super power would Reese Witherspoon want? Find out what, and why. (It may surprise you.)

1:23 | Reese's kids, Eva and Deacon, love to play with her Oscar. Hear about their seasonal hijinks with her golden guy.

1:42 | Find out how Reese drove Eva crazy while preparing for Walk The Line.

2:05 | You can imagine Jake Gyllenhaal helping out with this favorite Witherspoon family pastime.

4:34 | Reese is a mama who does the school fairs, plays, and volunteers in her kids' classrooms (wouldn't you like to be in that class?)

6:08| Find out daughter Eva's one request of Reese when they went to a Carrie Underwood concert together -- it left Reese feeling like "a regular, embarrassing old mom" (which, she says, helps keep her grounded)

7:16 | Learning how to be a parent isn't always easy; Reese gives a refreshingly honest answer about her journey to being a good parent

--Josh H.

Levi Plays Dress-Up In Josh K's Hockey Gear

When I first saw Levi Johnston step out onto the national stage with Sarah Palin and her family--Levi all cleaned up and wearing a suit and holding the hand of his pregnant girlfriend at the Republican National Convention--I never thought to myself, "Wow, I bet that teenage father from Wasilla, Alaska, will someday wear my gay best friend's hockey gear in a nudie shoot for Playgirl."

I mean, really.

But then?

It happened. Observe.

(The pics below are PG-13 at best. The hockey stick photo is cropped for modesty, but if you want to see that full pic and dozens of others, head to Playgirl.com.)

My Crack-of-Dawn Travel Adventures From Hell (Or: Why Northwest Airlines Can Effing Shove It And Die)

Over the last four years I've done a lot of traveling. I've made the round trip from Minneapolis to New York City about two dozen times during that time, among many other trips, and I've had a few travel mishaps and lessons learned along the way. But today's travel adventures? They're in a whole new exciting category of travel fuckery that's so spectacular that I felt I just had to share the joy.

Here's the context that helps make the story really pop: A few months ago my parents booked me a round-trip flight from New York to Minneapolis for the Thanksgiving holidays. Then, on November 11, my romantic relationship hit a giant iceberg and went ass-up a la Titanic.

Since my now-former-boyfriend and I were still living together, and even though the breakup was mutual and relatively peaceable, everybody figured maybe it would be best to have a little time away before I moved to my new apartment. My parents generously offered to fly me home for the holidays several days early on a one-way ticket from Sun Country Airlines and I took them up on the offer.

So I flew home early, spent time with my family and even saw a few friends, did the big Turkey Day meal with la familia, and then it was time to pack things up and head home again.

If only.

Things today started out on the wrong foot. After sleeping fewer than three hours (last night I just couldn't drift off for some reason) I woke up at 4:30 a.m. in the suburbs to get out the door at 5:15 a.m. for my 7:15 a.m. flight. But that wasn't even the rough part.

First, at 5:50 a.m., when I got to Sun Country Airlines at the Humphrey Terminal in Minneapolis, they kindly reminded me that my flight home was on Northwest, not Sun Country, and was in fact at the other terminal. I ran full-out to catch the light rail connection to the Lindberg Terminal, and made it there in just enough time to feasibly catch my flight.

I told the ticket agent at Northwest/Delta that I was flying from Minneapolis to JFK, but when she punched in my information she said that wasn't happening. I was flying into La Guardia. Oh, well, okay, no big deal. Another fun random turn in the morning, but that was fine with me. Since I'm still living on the Upper East Side, La Guardia would be even quicker to get home. I was game.

But then: "Um, sir, you're going to have to go see a ticket agent down there at the end of the row. There's a problem with your ticket."

A problem?

"Yes," she said. "Your ticket has been cancelled."

WTF?

I went down to the other agent and, while clicking away at her computer, she delivered the big fun surprise that gave the morning that extra special, memorable touch:

"Sir, it seems that you did not fly out on the outbound leg of your flight from New York to Minneapolis, and when you did that it invalidated your flight itinerary. You can skip a return flight, but you can't skip an outbound flight on a round-trip ticket. So unfortunately your ticket has been cancelled." And then, in a more upbeat tone: "But you are certainly welcome to buy another ticket."

OMFG, WTF?

"Well," she explained, "when you don't take the outbound leg of the flight it violates the terms of your ticket and it invalidates the itinerary. So we can credit you the $300 you paid for the original ticket, but there is a $150 rebooking penalty, and then you need to purchase a new one-way ticket, which I can book for you for $560 on this morning's ten o'clock flight to La Guardia. So that will be $410, cash or credit. Or you can use 60,000 Sky Miles and pay a $150 fee to book the ticket. Whichever you like." (Sixty thousand Sky Miles, by the way, is well over the amount of miles you need to book a round-trip ticket to Maui.)

I was about to tell her what I would really like from her, but I held my tongue and started dialing my phone.

I mean, seriously? We paid $300 for a flight. And because I didn't take the outbound leg the whole thing is invalidated? And I'm then invited to purchase a one-way flight for the bargain price of $410 to get home?

Screw that.

Online we found a ticket home tomorrow for $216. We'll go ahead and do that instead of paying $410, thanks.

A little quick math: $300 for the original ticket, $110 for the one-way ticket home early after the ol' breakup, and now $216 to get me home tomorrow. That's $626 for a 10-day Thanksgiving visit.

Happy freaking holidays.

I headed downstairs to the deserted baggage claim area to wait for a ride home. I went directly to a vending machine and bought a Kit Kat and a Diet Coke. I polished both off before you could say, "Northwest Airlines and all its affiliated f**king affiliates can go to hell."

I plunked down in a corner, right on the concrete floor (it was near an outlet, where I could recharge my goodies) and watched the sunrise as I listened to the symphony of a creaky baggage conveyor belt, still limping along even though there were no bags to distribute, as it mixed with the drone of CNN and the click and shuffle of footsteps. Two baggage claim employees eyed me as I sat in my corner. I just focused on my chocolate.

At least I had the chocolate.

Finally, nearly six hours after arriving at the airport, and at about the time I should have been walking through the front door of my apartment in New York, I got a ride back to the Minneapolis suburbs.

And tomorrow?

Tomorrow I will be back here at 5:45 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. flight home.

A flight home, that is, if Northwest Airlines doesn't decide to cancel my itinerary at its discretion.

Cross your fingers.

Levi Johnston Handles Josh K's Stick in Playgirl Shoot

Um. Okay. So, get this:

You know Levi Johnston, father of Sarah Palin's grandson?

You know how Levi is posing for Playgirl in a mostly-nude spread that debuts starting this Saturday?

(Please. You know about this unless you've been living under a rock wearing white-noise headphones and a satin Frederick's of Hollywood blindfold.)

Well, I invite you to take a very close look at the photo below of Josh K wearing his hockey gear. (Josh plays for an intramural team in New York City.)

And now I invite you to watch this video (below) from The Insider of Levi Johnston wearing Josh K's hockey gear in his Playgirl photo shoot.

No, seriously. That's actually Josh's shoulder pads, hockey pants, stick, and helmet.

Is that not some really, really crazy sh!t?

Read more about it on Towleroad.

From The Department of New Beginnings

Josh H, photographed by Josh K, Key West lighthouse, October 26, 2009

We could get all theatrical and dramatic about it, sort of like the photo above. Doesn't that picture kind of remind you of one of those epic paintings featuring French revolutionaries with the woman in Grecian robes out front with one boob hanging out, defiant and proud and brave in the face of battle? (And why always just the one boob, I ask you. Why?)

Anyway, fine, let's do this the "just the facts, ma'am" way, cuz we all know this stuff ain't really that fun to talk about.

So: I'm single again.

The Cliff's Notes version? It was an amicable split, agreed upon by both of us. (Still, not exactly a barrel of monkeys, though, you know?)

The next morning I mentioned my breakup online and less than an hour later friends swooped in and, like magic, an apartment surfaced. Next week I'm moving out of my Upper East Side zip code and returning to Hell's Kitchen, just around the corner from Josh K.

--Josh H.

Josh & Josh Do Key West

In October Josh and I went to Key West, Florida, on assignment for Passport magazine. Passport sent us for six days to shoot footage for a six-minute travel video about Key West and all the fun stuff to do there. Josh H (left) served as on-camera guide and Josh K as videographer and editor. Above the Joshes are at Casa Marina Resort, a beautiful place to have lunch and kick off the Key West trip.

Josh and I got around Key West the way most of the locals do: bicycle. We came to really enjoy our rides around the island.

Blu Q, a gay-friendly tour company with daily boat cruises, took us for a sunset cruise one evening and on a snorkeling-and-lunch expedition out at sea another afternoon.

There were quite a few adorable couples on our Blu Q excursions and some gorgeous scenery.

Okay, and so there might have been a very, very hot Italian guy on board who just happened to be the director of marketing for Valentino in Milan. Josh K is either ogling the guy or in awe of the tropical scenery. Who can remember which it was?

After lunch, but before snorkeling, we all got off the boat and waded into the warm waters off the shore of a deserted island near Man Key. Josh H (center) and Josh K (not pictured here) even ventured off in kayaks to check out a small shipwreck further up the shore left by Cuban immigrants fleeing their home country.

One of our favorite events was a guided tour of writer Ernest Hemingway's home.

After the tour our guide, who took a shine to the Joshes, gave us a rare private tour of Hemingway's writing studio in a building behind the house.

We each even had a chance to sit down at Hemingway's typewriter that he used to write classics including For Whom The Bell Tolls. Um, it was such a literary turn-on. It had us both practically sweating.

Josh K gets ponderous.

Later we made our way back to Casa Marina where we both took a nap on the beach, Josh H in the hammock and Josh K goin' for it right in the sand. It was glorious.

One morning we got up in time to see a Key West sunrise over the harbor on our way to a day-long cruise and tour of the Dry Tortugas National Park and historic Fort Jefferson, a former military fort which sits on the national park.

After a two-hour speed ferry ride the Dry Tortugas National Park and Fort Jefferson appeared on the horizon. Because of its remote location it's the second least-visited national park in the United States. But, as we were to learn, it's certainly one of the most beautiful, especially for its compact size.

Josh K at work in the halls of Fort Jefferson.

Josh K walking along the top of Fort Jefferson.

A view of the moat and the sea from the top of Fort Jefferson.

The Joshes snorkeling at Dry Tortugas National Park.

We spent our last night in Key West, like most nights, by the pool at our guest house, the famed Island House.

We looked up at the stars, something you never get to see in New York City. (The only exception: when Manhattan and the entire metro area have a blackout. Otherwise, nada for stars.) Josh K set his camera's shutter speed to a slow setting and got this great picture of the sky.

The next morning we got on a plane and headed back to New York. We really enjoyed Key West and look forward to when we might have a chance to go back and enjoy it again.