November 19, 1996

News/Sports @

The Panther Prints

FAB Is Details out of the Closet

By Jessica Waiser. The

Sheaf. University of Saskatoon

Ten years ago gay magazines tended to be shelved in plastic sleeves next to Playboy and Hustler on the magazine rack. Their pages were littered with sexually explicit editorials and adver- tisements, steamy 1-900 num- bers and sex toy catalogues.

Gay magazines of to- day, however, can be found shelved next to other 'lifestyles' magazines. They are filled with informative articles which delve deep into pop culture and, more surprisingly, they are filled with advertise- ments from many of the big- gest names in corporate North America.

FAB National, Cana- da's fledgling gay lifestyles magazine, is the first of this new breed of queer periodi- cals to hit the newsstands in this country.

FAB -- short for fabu- lous -- National magazine, the Canadian answer to Ameri- can gay publications such as Out, Genre, and Advocate, hit the stands this fall. Published bi-monthly this new breed of magazine is not as political or as angry as its predecessors. Rather, FAB National is, in a sense, a gay Details -- focus- ing more on enjoying life and celebrating the gay lifestyle.

"We developed this product in response to increas- ing consumer and advertiser interest in gay periodicals," said FAB National's publisher Michael Schwarz. "The gay community has been well- served by community-based newspapers in the past, but the market has become more so- phisticated. People are inter- ested in more than local com- munity happenings and gos- sips."

The magazine is geared towards gay male readers be- tween the ages of 20 and 50.

In Canada, gay activists esti- mate there are between 700,000 and one million gay men. Of these, a large per- centage are affluent and highly educated -- a promising target group of consumers for any high-profile advertiser.

In years past, such ad- vertisers have been reluctant to invest in the gay market. Some feared the repercussions of associating themselves too closely with gay politics, such as consumer backlashes against their companies, while most failed to recognize the financial power wielded by the gay community.

But today's breed of gay publications promise a publi- cation free of sexually explicit

advertisements and editorials -- anapproach many members of the gay community call re- freshing. This absence of sexu- ally explicit material also comes as a relief to many cor- porate heavies who now feel comfortable with cashing in on the gay market. Such big names include Mossimo, Jeep, Absolute Vodka, and Apple.

"FAB's content is up- beat and fresh. Dedicated to the more enjoyable aspects of the gay lifestyle, the maga- zine will leave the politics and anger to those publications who have built their reputa- tions on it. FAB will inform, but will not preach; it will lead, but will not push," the maga- zine claims.

FAB National is "Cana- da's Gay Lifestyles Magazine" according to the blurb on the cover. This is true only to a certain extent, however. When compared to its American counterparts, FAB National is void of sleazy phone sex ad- vertisements, has an all-en- compassing Canadian gay life- styles directory, and some ar- ticles with a distinctive and genuine Canadian flavour. For the most part, however, the magazine has an extremely glossed over, American feel to it, as much of the photogra- phy and subject matter comes from outside our borders.

For a premiere issue, the people at FAB National have done a very impressive

Dal Tigers Win Catfight With

By: Daniel Clark. Dalhousie Gazette

to Panthe

Special Manes

It was a very cold night in Charlottetown last Saturday, when the Dalhousie Tigers doubled the Panthers 8 - 4, unless of course your name is Naylor. Luke Naylor scored a hattrick on rather hapless goaltending by Craig Johnson, while his brother, Ted Naylor, assisted on each of Luke's goals plus added another assist on Chad Kalmakoff's goal.

The Tigers jumped to an early lead when lan Melichercik opened up the scoring, and Luke Naylor picked up his first goal. The Panthers showed that they were going to make a game of it when Dave Lemay put a bullet past Dal netminder Fred Corkum. The period ended with Naylor scoring his second with a 1:31 left.

The Tigers may have

entered the dressing rooms with a 3 - | lead, but it was the Panthers who came to play early in the second. Todd Walker scored at the 16 second mark, and 1:26 later Phil Simeon tied up the game.

That was when the game fell apart for UPEI. After a nice goal by Kalmakoff, the Panthers picked up three penalties in six minutes; one of them a double minor. That cleared the way for three straight Tiger powerplay goals. Naylor finished off his hattrick, Melichercik picked up his second goal, and Marc Warner closed out the pe- riod.

At this point it was all but over for the Panthers. The crowd became pretty unruly at this point. Swear- ing occurred between a group of Panther support- ers, and a group who had travelled up from Dal. But this game was won and lost on special teams.

UPEI looked abso- lutely pathetic on powerplay. They gave upa shorthanded goal _ to Melichercik (the first goal of the game), and managed to go 0 for 6 with a man advantage. The Dal shorthanded team looked brilliant controlling the puck, and dumping it into UPEI's end regularly. The Tigers even escaped 1:11 with a two man disadvan-

e.

Dal on the other hand controlled the puck during their advantage and man- aged to score 4 for 7 on the powerplay. the Tigers did an excellent job of control- ling the puck, and on one goal had the Panthers so confused that they com- pletely missed their cover- age. They gave Luke Naylor so much time that my grand- mother could have con- verted it.

This game exempli- fied the recent slide of the

job. The magazine provides the reader with an extremely diverse range of subject mat- ter, even though it isn't as Ca- nadian as they claim it to be. The magazine is impressive in that it targets a very specific group and still presents a vari- ety of different viewpoints. This issue contains pieces on "practicing pride", the "gay gene," pornography on the Internet, and a Cana- dian man facing extradition to Mexico for the murder of his lover, among others. The arts and entertainment section is dripping with pop culture -- profiles on prominent gay per- formance artists, photography exhibitions, health and fitness, short fiction, fashion, cartoons, technology, and music.

Panthers

UPEI Panthers into last place in the MacAdam Di- vision with a 2-7-0 record. Their work ethic is not the problem... they just suck. With the exception of Lemay's goal in the first (which was an absolute fro- zen rope), and Walker's in the second; all of the Pan- thers' shots (even the ones that scored) were very stoppable.

For myself, it was my first time watching a hockey game in someone else's arena, and I've learned that it is not as easy as it looks. Some of the things you can do in your home rink (blow- ing kazoos, yelling at the ref, and singing "Na Na Na Na, Hey Hey Hey Good- bye.") are not as well ac- cepted in the Charlottetown Civic centre. All in all, the people were very friendly; with the exception of the kid who spat on me. Kid (I think his name was Adam), if you are reading this, then you can kiss my ass!

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