Mavety Media: The Rise and Fall of Socially Redeeming Content

We've written about Mavety Media Group canceling its gay publications, and the October 2009 issue of Unzipped features a story covering the company's pioneering work. The following Unzipped Media video (from director Sean Carnage and editor Craig Fields) is a brief look at these publications and the company's founder, George Mavety.

Steven Scarborough speaks

Wanna see Hot House founder (and hottie) Steven Scarborough in the flesh? Tonight’s your chance! The legendary director will be the guest speaker for Bigger Than Life: Porn History Show. The GLBT Historical Society program focuses on San Francisco’s role in the creation of gay porn and how Scarborough helped establish it's economic foundation. Video highlights will be shown, but I'm not sure if refreshments are being served. It's alright either way; Scarborough's presence is nourishment enough.

Click here for more event info.

Beating off the recession

Unzipped Media gives readers a raise with their super sexy October 2009 “Recession” issue of Unzipped magazine, featuring a centerfold of Randy Blue star Vincent DeSalvo.

Inside the magazine, DeSalvo talks about doing porn to pay for school, being kicked out of his Christian college after his adult career is discovered, and his coming out process.

The print issue is available now!

“Our hot layouts have always boosted the careers of newer performers,” said Winston Gieseke, Managing Editor for Unzipped Media. “Mr. DeSalvo has a genuine, masculine energy that has been a huge hit with readers on Unzipped.net. Now they’ll get to see him in a brand new photo spread.”

Following the issue’s theme, articles inside also cover ways to tackle the recession with the stripping of “Men at Play” Wall Street executive Miro (a.k.a. Patrik). For those bitches on a budget, Unzipped offers tips on how to earn money without hustling, as well as building a dungeon on a discount, and more.

To see more DeSalvo or Miro, visit Menmachine.com

Other features include a profile on award-winning Raging Stallion director Tony Dimarco, as well as up and coming Titan Men exclusive Will Parker.

To get the entire digital edition NOW, click here!

The great San Francisco radio slaughter of 2009

This is one of those classic good news/bad news situations—so let's bite the bullet and start with the bad.

SFist reports:

Yesterday, rumors were swirling like a tweaker with glo-sticks that Energy 92.7, the city's preferred dance station with a gay bent, will come to an end. Turns out said rumors are, sadly, true. While calls to 92.7 have gone unanswered, word is that the station's new owner is a homophoobic meanie who stomps on puppies and rainbows. Or something like that.

According to SF Examiner's Eric Ross, there was "a big rumor going around [yesterday] that the new owner of Energy 92.7 is very homophobic and he fired a lot of the employees at the radio station."

As anyone who has ever been to the Bay Area knows, Energy 92.7 was the perfect station to listen to on the way to the city's great dance clubs—it instantly set that thumpa-thumpa mood. Energy's format is pretty much unparalleled in California (we certainly don't have anything close in L.A.), and this is a huge loss for modern dance fans (the station's web stream has also been extinguished).

Okay...time for some good news.

SFGate has announced:

Acid-tongued, conservative talk show host Michael Savage has been silenced in the very city he loves to whack—San Francisco. The syndicated host of "Savage Nation'' has been dropped from local Clear Channel station KNEW-910 AM. According to the station's Web site, "We have decided to go in a different philosophical and ideological direction, featuring more contemporary content and more local information."

Savage is being replaced during the 3 p.m.-7 p.m. drive-time slot by John and Ken, a couple of younger and conservative-leaning Southern California talkers. A Wikipedia check shows they are pro-death penalty, anti-tax, anti-illegal immigration and pro-gays in the military.

Savage, who has made plenty of headlines over the years by ripping San Francisco liberals, claims to have an audience of 8 million to 10 million listeners on nearly 400 stations nationwide. The Marin County resident recently made headlines when he asked Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton—whom he once described as a "dangerous human being''—to help him after he was banned from Britain for failing to represent the United Kingdom's "values."

Homophobic Michael Savage, whose family members (aka Rockstar Energy drinks) attempted to sue me and Unzipped Media back in June, will—unlike Energy 92.7 FM—definitely not be missed.

So one loss and one win...I guess we can call this one a draw, eh?

Never-ending boners, fewer sticky pages

We're all really proud of the new mini-tribute to Mavety Media in the brand new October 2009 issue of Unzipped (accompanying video documentary coming soon).

As most everyone knows, the desktop publishing boom of the late 1980's has been largely superseded by online publishing in the 21st Century. It's been a rough transition for some, like the pioneering Mavety mags (Mandate, Inches, Honcho, Playguy, et al). This past summer they ceased publication, removing a huge chunk of gay history and sexy fun from our lives forever. How could this ever happen?

In 2009 it's clear: to survive you have to grow—and you have to do it on the web.

Today, Unzipped Media announced that Men and Freshmen magazines will move to a new format as expanded quarterly print editions after the November issues of both street later this fall. 

Premium daily, weekly and monthly content for both magazines will be available online via ClubFreshmen.com and MenMachine.com (which will soon be re-launched with new features that will amaze you). Men and Freshmen subscribers will receive Unzipped in their mailboxes, and Unzipped will have a heftier page count in order to incorporate the hot dudes—young and old—that everyone loves.

Unzipped.net will continue to be your news source for anything Men, Freshmen or Unzipped related. We're adding more video all the time, and our traffic has more than quadrupled since we started this site last September—thanks to you.

So let's take a moment to celebrate our collective journey—both as gay men and as avid readers.

The erotic publications of yesteryear were the foundation for real social change.

If anyone tells you love can't re-make the world, tell them they're wrong.

We just did it.

College student booted for getting it in the bootie now out, proud and on his own

Photo: RandyBlue.com

22-year-old John Gechter was a typical Midwestern Christian college student...who paid for his schooling by appearing on RandyBlue.com as “Vincent DeSalvo.”

But when a fellow student found him online and ratted him out to college officials, Gechter was publicly ridiculed and then expelled.

In an extension of our exclusive Unzipped interview available in our October issue now, Gechter looks forward...

Titan sues porn tube site for copyright infringement

After months of trying, Titan parent company IOGroup finally got the chance to serve the subtly named video site, "Monster Cock Tube," with a piracy suit. The site's owners are German citizens, but they were at the Internext conference in Florida this past weekend, and IOGroup was waiting for them. Monster Cock Tube, which now redirects to the more understated "Monster Cock Land," was apparently streaming Titan movies, which is obviously a big no-no.

Now, as you know, the majority of the content on these tube sites is user created and uploaded. But why anyone wants to watch shitty, grainy, amateur porn (even if it's free) on the Internet is beyond me. If you want to watch bad sex with ugly dudes you don't know, why not go to a bathhouse or, better yet, go pick up a stranger and have some bad sex of your own? Speaking as a pure fan, I'd rather watch porn with guys who are actually hot and a director who knows how to capture a come shot. That's all.

Diesel Washington and Tag Adams want to be porn again

Is Diesel Washington a flip-flopper? Evidently, the recently retired porn star is already re-thinking his exit from the industry—that is if Tag Adams has anything to do with it. On last night's installment of The Derek and Romaine Show, both men appeared as guests with porn agent Howard "Fabscout" Andrew, and they made it very clear that they were willing to do a scene together.

Bel Ami and Corbin Fisher joining forces

Wow! Two of our favorite studios, Bel Ami and Corbin Fisher, are collaborating to create a new DVD, "Five Americans in Prague." We love this idea and can't wait to see our favorite models from both teams mixing it up. It'll be just like that one crossover episode of Diff'rent Strokes and Silver Spoons, except with anal sex!

The two industry giants are also planning on releasing several online scenes featuring some of their most popular models. Read the full press release and see another scorching photo after the jump!

It's life in prison for Marcus Allen

Let this be a lesson to all of you gay-for-pay porn stars thinking about shooting your former boss/john in the head, dumping his body in a creek, stealing his safe and trying to cut it open with a power saw, and then escaping to Mexico. In the end, it's just not worth it!

Marcus Allen, a former Freshman of the Year, was found guilty today and will be spending the rest of his life in prison, without the possibility of parole. The Denver jury of nine women and three men convicted Allen (who looks hot in this mugshot, admit it) not only of first-degree murder, but also of aggravated assault. In Colorado, anyone found guilty of first-degree murder automatically gets life in prison.

Buh-bye, Marcus.