*This is a special FUR issue. We have to thank Ignacio Lozano and East Village Boys for those furry seducing images. And for the fuzzy experience to Javier, Sergio and Paco from Madrid.

[images Ignacio Lozano for EVB]

When I woke up this morning, I did my digital native ritual as follows: while still rolling in bed I checked (in order of appearance) my email, twitter, facebook, blog reader. The first 3 didn’t really amaze me with something extraordinary. While checking the blogs I am following I stumbled upon this post by Brian Kenny. It was a mix of YouTube videos, one of which had the picture of François Sagat in something that looked like one of those shows, where a slutty girl with no brain, but too humongous boobs gives cash to people who are lured to call and guess a word starting with D and ending in UMB. Just this time it was François playing the call girl. I made it my early morning mission to find out more about the artist and the video and here is what I found:

Lukas Beyler is not just amazingly arousing to look at (more images in the gallery at the bottom of this post), but also creates stunning video art. He was born in Lausanne (Switzerland) in 1980. Graduated in Visual Arts from the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne (ECAL) and was awarded by the Prix de la Fondation Ernest Manganel 2005 for his final year project. Among other things, Lukas has been assisting photographer Walter Pfeiffer on several projects. In 2009 he provided live visuals and stage design for Bruce LaBruce’s live performance ‘Macho Family Romance’ at the Theater Neumarkt, Zurich. He lives and works in Zurich.

Some quick name-dropping: artists such as Fabrice Gygi, John Armleder and Karim Noureldin took part in his works. His most important pieces include The Hustler’s Crib (2008), Pas-de-Calais (2008), and Heidi Oh-! (where a sweet Asian girl tells you in an acid dream alike way about Switzerland, 2006).

His latest video is called simply François Sagat – it features the photo shoot with the porn star in different roles and outfits (including half-naked indian and disco roller-skater school girl) playing one of those sluts on TV who want to give you money if you guess a 4-letter word and call 100 times in a roll. And on top of that comes Messer Chups’s Tchaikovsky Beat. Amazing visual peace and the best way to begin a cold rainy day in Berlin!

And here come the promised images: read more

In the industrial cities, tiny little particles in suspension flutter, coming from industries, cars and sometimes even from hydroelectric power stations: it’s the DUST. Hidden, silent, omnipresent in our lives, it lands everywhere: the house, the roof, among the hair, the fingers….

DUST is a publication that will be launched on September/October 2010 and that is brought to us with the special compliments and visual pleasure of Luca Guarini’s visual art. Starting with an online format but with the idea of releasing some printed editions. It will be a fashion-art magazine, which will be out every 3 months. DUST will be accompanied by a blog, that will content information about different topics, run by some collaborators. The magazine’s target are people with no-age and no-condition. DUST is right for you if you love discovering new talents.

The first DUST issue is called SEEDS – as in the essence, semen or the source of beginning. Luigi & Luca released following video as a teaser fot DUST #0:

There is no better description of a publication, for me personally: read more

American Apparel is so 2000 and late. Dov Charney (CEO, AA) reinvented the shorts, briefs, tube-socks, V-necks, tight long-sleeves – these used to be the basics of every queer wardrobe. It was even more exciting for us children of former USSR where communism brought some real vintage sexyback (from today’s perspective) but where no one realized it back then. Well, even for us now, AA has become kind of dull, boring and mundane. And obviously I am not the only one who thinks like that  – have you checked the avalanche of red numbers that slammed AA? Or the shit storm that crushed it some months ago?

“Hipster is over” says Dov, who, as the founder of American Apparel, rode the trend as far as anyone. Starting the company in a dorm at Tufts University in Medford, Mass., he built a worldwide empire of 280 stores by boldly leaping out ahead of mainstream fashion until it turned to (surprise!) mainstream itself. Fashion nerds and hipsters would nowadays rather mix couture with HUMANA than wear something having an American Apparel label on. read more

If it wasn’t for FUR_02, you wouldn’t be really reading this.

Stefano is 24 even if he feels older. He grew up in Iglesias, a small town in Sardinia, used to live in Northern Spain and is based now in Cagliari, Sardinia. He is single and wants to go on like this for a while connecting with new people as much as he can – or in other words, he’d like to fuck around for a while before he settles again. Stefano is a law student, a hard core video gamer, a LGBT rights activist and a happy DJ in his spare time: “mainly I love to find great tunes on teh intertubes!” When I asked him if he had some nasty childhood memories he can share with me, he just answered: ”…well, i don’t have clear memories, i remember only a very hot summer and my brother on a bed” That’s enough reasons to talk to him about queer politics, fur and pheromones. I have also a fine selection of furry images in the gallery. Check them out at the end of the post.

Tell me about your LGBT activist side.

ARC is a cultural association, created 8 years ago in Cagliari: the capital of Sardinia. ARC’s main project is to spread queer culture so we organize at least one big yearly Cineforum (cinema week with a discussion round at the end) called “Uno Sguardo Normale” – A Normal Glance. Also, we sell books, promote emerging authors, especially local authors. We also have collateral movie weeks. This year for example it was about Vatican and Queer people with themed movies and documentaries. We also organized, as a totipotential-self-generated organization machine, the Cagliari Gay Pride. It’s not really a gay pride tho, it is more for the anti-homophobia day, which is kinda difficult to organize there, since the gay scene isn’t so alive and people are still scared despite Sardinia being really gay. My tasks are transversal – I am the translator, I put subs to movies; lately I translated a HIV prevention pamphlet, originally created by Spanish LGBT association XEGA – Xente Gai Asturies. and i’m the official DJ. Watch a video of the pride on YouTube.

When did you realize you like fur?

I always liked guys, obviously had a moment in which i felt a bit confused, but it lasted like 5 minutes, then i thought “ok, i like men and i like ‘em furry” In Italy, especially in Sardinia, guys are pretty hairy and small so it’s common to see lots of body hair exposed, but I think I started to worship manly fur by reading greek myths and watching greek arts… those curly beards, those hairy satyrs, those bushy pubes are still really really arousing for me.

Which is the most sexually arousing type of fur for you?

I really like blonde and ginger fur, especially read more