A new low

[RockHard]

RE: challenging Doug69

 

I'm not surprised that Benjamin Nicholas has a foe like Doug69 (even though I seriously question Doug69's mania).

 

One of the first questions that ran through my mind soon after I started reading "15 Minutes" is why would a popular escort start a gossip column on an escort-review site and still plan to continue working as an escort. I smelled a golden opportunity to piss a lot of people off but, then again, I like a guy (with balls) who thinks outside the box.

 

My businessman/venture-capital brain also asked how could this work without destroying his escort business. There's no way I would ever hire BN now unless I knew I could keep my identity secret throughout our time together. (Well, I do that anyway with everyone else so what am I saying?)

 

But then some other social-whooores came to mind. Doesn't Liz Smith, Dominick Dunne, Aileen Mahle (who openly writes as "Suzy"), and that god-awful-beast-of-pretension, Cindy Adams, all mingle with and befriend the very people they write about? (I know comparing BN to these heavyweights is laughable but someone has to make a cogent argument.)

 

Maybe BN is financially secure and doesn't care about the potential conflict-of-interest ramifications. Or, maybe he's got a wealthy patron fully devoted to his whims and creative desires. Or, maybe he believes that any publicity, good or bad, can further his creative business ambitions. Or, as Doug69 suggests, maybe BN is a pretentious, evil, hack who doesn't deserve any attention. Maybe he's nothing more than a cock-eyed optimist with a cock stuck in his eye and the word "opportunist" tattooed on the head of his penis.

 

Nothing I ever said got people to stop listening to Madonna and calling her a "singer." Life is full of choices. Isn't freedom wonderful?

 

The bottom line is: this is the escort/gossip world we're talkin' about. NOBODY CARES! (As long as he protects himself from slander suits.) If BN is willing to lose every customer he has in the quest to create mindless, humorous entertainment, he has the right to pursue these and any other lofty ambitions.

 

Speaking of hacks, I can think of plenty of celebrities who are hacks and make a good living by augmenting their careers with salacious attention. (Shall I drop the names of some of my clients?) Welcome to show biz, folks.

 

There are millions of people who love gossip and given the un-abating proliferation of porn in this market, and the never-ending men who escort, I'd say BN can look forward to a mighty long career in gossip writing.

 

Nothing anybody says can stop me from reading "15 Minutes" or the "Monroe Monument." They're both fun and funny additions to an often boring website. I applaud whoever chose these two escort/writers because too many escorts think they have what it takes to be interesting writers. And most of them make me YAWN. Benjamin and Rick have my attention.

 

ps Aren't we educated men smart enough to realize that the words "ethics", "morals," and "integrity" don't belong in the same sentence as paid-male-companion? This is an altruistic pipe-dream. (Nice, when you can find it, though.) Maybe Doug69 should spend a week working for a big-name record company. That'll be a rant I'd be willing to read and support.

[RockHard]

RE: Are writers not artists?

 

"Most Hollywood movies are not art at all."

 

Spoken by someone who clearly has no ambition to work in film. I wonder what the creative team of people who work on any film (who never know the final outcome of their efforts) would say about this.

 

I have no desire to debate the question, "What is art?" I think intelligent readers without an agenda will understand the point I was trying to make. This is not a site for serious "art" review.

 

I do think almost anything can be art, even a few words written on a piece of paper. It just depends on each viewer's vision and a mind that's open.

[Yeswell]

RE: Are writers not artists?

 

Of course films can be art and of course writing can be art. But when the film or writing in question ranges from bad to mediocre, as BN's column does, there seems to me to be no point in calling it art. This is not to say that it's not entertaining or interesting.

[Guest Adono]

...My beef is allowing his column to be linked from this site. ....

 

What kind of link? The '15 minutes' link at the top of the page has been gone for some time. Other than that the only links are in his postings or his reviews. Are you saying that he (only) should not be allowed to include a link in his signature lines, as so many others do?

 

Mind you, I'm not defending the kind of gossip he posts.

[+ glutes]

RE: A new low, and moving on...

 

>Doug is correct when he says Benji did this to be a bitch and

>it has nothing to do with Chuck or Vincent Michaels, so why

>post it? if you're suggesting people drop this topic, it's

>really none of your business what others discuss here.

 

The point of my copying the other post from The Lounge was look at what Hedda Hopper of Hooville has done!

Disclosing clients work profession, what funds 'she' is paid from, and now colleagues HIV stautus.

How much lower can Hedda go?

[+ Lucky]

RE: Link

 

His column is linked on the day that it appears. Check out the reviews for that day and you will see the lead into the column. For a website that welcomes escorts,(and owes its life to them!) a link to an escort bashing blog is unseemly, imho.

[RockHard]

RE: Are writers not artists?

 

The word "art" as I've used it in this thread was a shorter way of saying, "the things that creative people make." The term "commercial art" is a shorter way of saying "the things that creative people make to earn an income. Sometimes, a sizable income." I have a feeling most readers understood my point.

 

I think I've been very honest and objective in my opinion of Mr. Nicholas' skills as a writer. I always appreciate smart, constructive criticism. Here's to hoping that BN does too.

[woodlawn]

RE: challenging Doug69

 

>One of the first questions that ran through my mind soon after

>I started reading "15 Minutes" is why would a popular escort

>start a gossip column on an escort-review site and still plan

>to continue working as an escort.

 

Maybe he's just dumb. The simplest explanation is often the best.

 

>My businessman/venture-capital brain also asked how could this

>work without destroying his escort business.

 

Because most of the people in the world who hire male escorts don't read this site?

 

>But then some other social-whooores came to mind. Doesn't Liz

>Smith, Dominick Dunne, Aileen Mahle (who openly writes as

>"Suzy"), and that god-awful-beast-of-pretension, Cindy Adams,

>all mingle with and befriend the very people they write about?

 

So did Capote. When he published excerpts from "Answered Prayers" containing references to some of the people with whom he socialized, they dropped him like a hot potato.

 

 

>(I know comparing BN to these heavyweights is laughable

 

Comparing him to anyone with talent is laugable.

 

 

>ps Aren't we educated men smart enough to realize that the

>words "ethics", "morals," and "integrity" don't belong . . .

 

I am, you are and I believe Doug is, but that's about it for the regular posters here.

[LovesYng]

RE: A new low...or high, depending.

 

Any one that knows people that do drugs knows when the person is high on Meth or other hard drugs that person loves to lie and believes his lies. This could be a good reason why the "Princesses" should get help with his drug problem

 

When in doubt I whip it out :+

[+ Lucky]

RE: A new low...or high, depending.

 

This post is total bullshit. There is no evidence here to back up either of your claims. It seems to be a nasty way of interjecting some more mud.

[RockHard]

RE: A new low...or high, depending.

 

Oh dear! The "high" that I was referring had nothing to do with drug use and everything to do with creative success and making money. Having six figures in a savings account is the best "high" I know. Some of you guys sure know how to twist and project.

[LovesYng]

RE: A new low...or high, depending.

 

>This post is total bullshit. There is no evidence here to

>back up either of your claims. It seems to be a nasty way of

>interjecting some more mud.

 

I don't see any names or personal information in what I said, not like when the princess interjects some mud, see again no names used in what I said.

 

When in doubt I whip it out :+

[AdamSmith]

>I've said it before and i'll say it again... If you don't

>like 15 Minutes, then simply ignore it.

>

>I didn't mention any names or reveal anything unheard of. The

>escorts-in-question emailed this to my inbox THEMSELVES and

>knew that i would be questioning it somehow on this week's

>blog. In return, i promised them i would keep their

>identities confidential.

>

>A new low? Hardly... It's no worse that what Musto writes or

>what the crew at Page Six post at the Post. For every 5% that

>complain about what is written on 15 Minutes, 95% email and

>let me know that they love it and want more.

>

>~bn

 

You chose to use others’ deep personal misfortune for your own gain. That was contemptible and repellent. Your excuses do nothing to change this.

 

Woodlawn tells us over and over that it is disordered thinking to expect other than the basest behavior from escorts. Are you proud to be proving him right?

[Barry]

RE: Link

 

>For a website that welcomes escorts,(and owes its life

>to them!) a link to an escort bashing blog is unseemly, imho.

 

"unseemly" is putting it very mildly and there is nothing humble about my opinion on this.

 

Barry

[RockHard]

RE: Hubris and Hyperbole.

 

"You chose to use others’ deep personal misfortune for your own gain. That was contemptible and repellent.''

 

Oh please Adam, darling, step away from the Soap Operas. Benjamin Nicholas is no Jack Abramoff or Tom Delay.

 

Some of you guys really need to find a cause that's more worthy...or find a better male companion. :o

[Doug69]

RE: challenging Doug69

 

>One of the first questions that ran through my mind soon after

>I started reading "15 Minutes" is why would a popular escort

>start a gossip column on an escort-review site and still plan

>to continue working as an escort. I smelled a golden

>opportunity to piss a lot of people off but, then again, I

>like a guy (with balls) who thinks outside the box.

 

Benji's blog, along with Benji's behavior, have changed dramatically over time, as has, I assume, the purpose he thinks he has in writing his little column. When it began, it was indistinguishable from the posts he used to write here - sugary, neutral, boring, and filled with nothing but cliches and empty cooing about petty matters (with nothing more than the very occasional and implict bitchy insult of other escorts, long a staple of Benji's self-promotion shtick). In short, like everything he wrote and did, it was designed to promote his prostitution business by spitting out fatally boring fluff in the hopes of appealing to the old, lonely, easily manipulated crowd looking for a weekend "pretend boyfriend" and seeking some pseudo-charming but basically empty and non-threatening eyelash-batting boy.

 

Somewhere along the way, Benji got it into his head that he and his blog were gaining real popularity and that he actually had a chance to become one of those bottom-feeding hangers-on on the fringes of low-level celebrity culture (along the lines of a Michael Musto, to whom Benji just revealingly compared himself). Because Benji's world-view (like the world-view of all deeply insecure people) is, as I indicated, predicated on an intense worship of cheap fame and low-level celebrity, Benji concluded that he would sacrifice his aging, dwindling escort career for a shot at a periodic appearance on the E! channel where he could dish about this and that.

 

Two other factors motivated this decision to chuck the escort career in favor of an increasingly cunty, offensive, indiscreet blog: (1) Benji isn't getting any younger or any prettier, and is much, much closer to the age of 30 (on one side or the other) than he to the age of 21, which he laughably claims to be on his site. His age shows, as does his (ahem) frenzied social activity, and consequently, his days of attracting anything other than a handful of deeply disturbed and needy souls were rapidly coming to an end; and (2) Benji maintains a small but pathologically devoted group of deranged followers who will turn money over to him regardless of how low his behavior sinks.

 

Woodlawn is right - Benji is about as smart as he is discreet. None of this was the result of a well-thought-out plan or strategy. He is just a hampster running in the direction of whatever food he sniffs. First it was the cash from prostitution, and so he used his blog to pump that up. Then, someone told him he had a real shot at fame as a gossip cunt, so that's where he's running now, and he thinks that his fame will come from being as extreme and obtaining as much notierity as possible - hence the outing of "celebrity" escort clients and, now, the repugnant use of HIV as a plaything for gossip.

 

>There are millions of people who love gossip and given the

>un-abating proliferation of porn in this market, and the

>never-ending men who escort, I'd say BN can look forward to a

>mighty long career in gossip writing.

 

I don't disagree that the topics of escorting and gossip couldn't be a potent combination to serve as the basis for a popular column or website, assuming that it was being created by someone with at least some talent, humor, and creativity. Benji has none of those things. What he writes is so sadly cliched, uncomfortable, strained, self-conscious and just plain dumb that, at least for me, reading what he writes (an increasingly difficult task now that he really has become convinced of his importance) produces pure, dull boredom for me more than anything else. And nothing is worse, or more inconsistent with success, than that.

 

>ps Aren't we educated men smart enough to realize that the

>words "ethics", "morals," and "integrity" don't belong in the

>same sentence as paid-male-companion? This is an altruistic

>pipe-dream. (Nice, when you can find it, though.) Maybe Doug69

>should spend a week working for a big-name record company.

>That'll be a rant I'd be willing to read and support.

 

I don't find it at all surprising that someone like BN is as deceitful, manipulative, dishonest, duplicitious and entirely unburdened by ethical constraints.

 

What is surprising to me is how many people fail or will themselves to fail to see that, mostly because they are so desperate to find a younger, reasonable attractive guy who coos at them that they are willing to overlook any character flaws, no matter how glaring or extreme. There are several things that interest me about the people on this Board and how they behave - but the extremity of their willingness to wallow in delusions about these prostitutes, even when the delusions are contradicted by all of the available evidence, all because their need for companionship from younger guys outweighs all other considerations and swamps their faculties of judgment, continues to both surprise and interest me.

[Yeswell]

RE: challenging Doug69

 

Why don't the words "ethics, morals, and integrity" belong in the same sentence as "paid-male companion"? Escorts are like everyone else: some are moral and some aren't. The fact that escorting is (I believe) illegal in all 50 states--although not in my country--is merely information about legality and not about morality or ethics or integrity. I meet many people who have jobs that are distasteful to me--people who work for bad governments or irresponsible corporations or even ad executives--who are still ethical. I can't see either logic or common sense in Rockhard or Woodlawn's position. The comment about "educated men" is neither here nor there, of course: educated is not the same thing as smart.

[Epigonos]

I really find it difficult to understand people who like pineapple on pizza. It just doesn't make sense to me.

[RockHard]

RE: responding to Doug69

 

Doug69, I enjoyed reading this latest piece and forgive me for saying you sound very bitter and angry with men who take money for sex and companionship. There is so much contempt, vitriol, and caddy presumption in this latest writing effort, it's very difficult to respect your opinions, regardless of their origin or credibility. I do respect your right to speak your mind.

 

I admit, I have little exposure to Benjamin Nicholas in the MC because I didn't pop in until six months ago. Your overview of BN's history was interesting to read but I have no other frame of reference to facilitate a fair response. Again, I would advise BN to keep silent.

 

Here's my response to some things you wrote:

 

"What he writes is so sadly cliched, uncomfortable, strained, self-conscious and just plain dumb that, at least for me, reading what he writes (an increasingly difficult task now that he really has become convinced of his importance) produces pure, dull boredom for me more than anything else."

 

Yet you seem to cling to every word and take great efforts to post quotes with lengthy analysis and determined decimation. Here lies the disturbing disconnect.

 

I accept you may not like Benjamin Nicholas and will not hire his services but, forgive me for saying, you go above and beyond reasoned dislike and appear to have no other goal other than to annihilate him. Is there not something or someone else in your life who deserves or could benefit from such intense passion? I wish there was an icon here for "hug."

 

"What is surprising to me is how many people fail or will themselves to fail to see that, mostly because they are so desperate to find a younger, reasonable attractive guy who coos at them that they are willing to overlook any character flaws, no matter how glaring or extreme."

 

Desperate people do desperate things. I, too, am fascinated by the behavior of older men who coo for twinky types but who on earth wants to acknowledge character flaws? Fantasy is so much more fun. Haven't cooing gay men been a staple of the gay community forever? Nothing you or I say will change their behavior or their predilection. Furthermore, what can one say that's positive about an older, particularly unattractive gay man who longs to have the attention, or sex, with a BN type? Must the perceived older/ugly gay man always be relegated to the gutter of good lookers?

 

I think it's a blessing that guys like BN are willing to fullfill the dreams and fantasies of older, unattractive gay men. Getting old is a bitch and losing your looks (if you ever had any) is worse. I think beauty is only skin deep but some guys think it's everything, and if they're willing to pay top dollar for something so superficial, so be it. I love freedom too much to deny any man from fulfilling his dreams and fantasies, regardless how dumb I think his choices might be.

 

"...but the extremity of their willingness to wallow in delusions about these prostitutes, even when the delusions are contradicted by all of the available evidence, all because their need for companionship from younger guys outweighs all other considerations and swamps their faculties of judgment, continues to both surprise and interest me."

 

Surprise and interest is fair. Vituperative vitriol with a vengeance is not. Your diatribes of decimation bring you to a level lower than you find suitable for BN. I suspect you can be a better man.

 

The nature of the beast, however ugly, in providing companionship services is delusion, and it works both ways. Buying the fantasy of love and lust is tricky business. Thank god someone wants to do it.

[+ deej]

RE: Link

 

>His column is linked on the day that it appears. Check out

>the reviews for that day and you will see the lead into the

>column.

 

I've often wondered how much traffic that page even gets.

 

I have two shortcuts for this site. One comes directly to the newest reviews, the other to the MC. I never even see the "news bits" Daddy posts on the Coverboy of the Day page.

 

>For a website that welcomes escorts,(and owes its life

>to them!) a link to an escort bashing blog is unseemly, imho.

 

You'll get no argument from me.

[Yeswell]

RE: Are writers not artists?

 

I admit that everyone will understand what you mean by art, but as I care about art it depresses me to see the word used for low-grade stuff.

[Yeswell]

RE: responding to Doug69

 

When you say that "the nature of the beast, however ugly, in providing comapanionship services is delusion" you are presumably speaking of your own experience. The comment certainly doesn't apply to my experiences. As in any business transactions, there are all sorts of possibilities for either party to be deluded but delusion is not a necessary consequence of the situation.

[VaHawk]

RE: challenging Doug69

 

"There are several things that interest me about the people on this Board and how they behave - but the extremity of their willingness to wallow in delusions about these prostitutes, even when the delusions are contradicted by all of the available evidence, all because their need for companionship from younger guys outweighs all other considerations and swamps their faculties of judgment, continues to both surprise and interest me."

 

I can't speak for anyone else who has hired Benjamin, but I can say, for myself, that I never had any of the delusions that you reference. I also didn't and still don't have the needs nor the loss of judgment that you cite, so you really shouldn't make generalizations about BN'S or any other escort's past/present/future clientele. These particular observations of yours smack of the very amateur practice of pyschology that woodlawn, and perhaps you, have railed against.

[jackhammer91406]

>...My beef is allowing his column to be linked from this

>site. ....

>

>What kind of link? The '15 minutes' link at the top of the

>page has been gone for some time. Other than that the only

>links are in his postings or his reviews. Are you saying that

>he (only) should not be allowed to include a link in his

>signature lines, as so many others do?

>

>Mind you, I'm not defending the kind of gossip he posts.

 

I don't think Ben should be prohibited from placing any links he wants in his own posts...BUT

 

As others have pointed out, he does get a link on the day he publishes that gives the impression that this site condones the kind of blind gossip and bitchy indiscretion that he seems intent to pursue. As I understand his replies to this thread, he sees nothing wrong with what he has done. Kind of the same answer he gave after the big hoohah last time. Its as though he thinks we are the ones who are the problem and not anything he does. Well, there's a description for what he is doing... it called failing to take responsibility for his own actions and blaming others if they find what he does is offensive. Fine, he will succeed without a dime of my business.

 

BUT, I believe admin ought to consider this site's reputation when allowing Ben's column to be linked in the future. I have said so and will continue to say so until something is done to correct an inaction that taints the MC and discredits Hooboy's memory.

[VaHawk]

RE: Link

 

I have never seen any escort bashing, including this incident, which did not mention any names. You're an intelligent man, so I'm sure that you know the difference between implication and inference.

 

As far as the link, is BN paying for it like other advertisers? If not, then you may have a point, and if so, then your point is moot at best.