Castro Confidential does . . . Ibiza!

I'm forming a new online community for adventurous world travelers: Ibiza Confidential chronicles our journey to the globe's top financial, cultural and spiritual destinations. From Burning Man, to dinner at Sao Paulo's ass-kicking Ritz burger joint, to this summer's Paris Hilton Watch on our first stop, the Mediterranean party island of Ibiza. Heck: We might even see more of my friend Paulo, the Portuguese personal trainer -- and jockstrap model!

Separated at birth: Cooper vs. Power

Over-compensated CNN correspondent Anderson "Paris Hilton of the anchors" Cooper and over-endowed Rascal Video porn star Mike Power. For a most definitely NSFW photo of Power, go here. Think your puss matches a celebrity's? Check out My Heritage. [Photos: CNN and Greg Thompson]

Time to retool Castro Confidential!

Eight months and nearly 800 posts (!) after starting Castro Confidential, I've decided to take a long break while I revamp, rethink and -- I expect -- relaunch this blog with a more focused approach. I want to inject more San Francisco in this blog so it lives up (down?) to its name of Castro Confidential. That means more original, local news, entertainment and hot photos about one of the world's gayest neighborhoods.

But that's going to take more time than I can devote when I've already got a full-time job. So, hang in there with me, folks! And consider shooting an e-mail to castroconfidential@gmail.com with your contact information; I'll fire you a note back when the blog relaunches, so you won't have to keep checking back on your own.

[Photo: Power house mechanic working on steam pump, 1920, by Lewis Hine]

He's gay, and he's got a big, big, big...

. . . brokerage account! That's Peter Thiel (left), uber-investor, resident of San Francisco's posh Pacific Heights 'hood, and employer of a butler, Silicon Valley gossipeuse Valleywag is now reporting.

"By now, you've likely heard how Peter Thiel parlayed a $500,000 investment in Facebook to a stake now worth $750 million,'' the Wag says. "There's been a crush of coverage on his $220 million Founders Fund, which may well change the way entrepreneurs get paid in the Valley. We know about his mansion (he rents it -- clever!), his butler, his early-morning jogs. But what no one ever says out loud: Thiel is gay."

What are they drinking in the Menlo Park venture-capital firms along Sand Hill Road? Thiel would be at least the second high-profile outing this year of one of these famously stuffed-shirt financiers.

French men have such big baguettes!

And I speak from experience, because I've just returned from a holiday in Paris with Sparky and my father. (More on that later!) I saw the cutest Parisian firemen in the way-gay Marais neighborhood -- though none so hunky as the rugby players featured in the newest Dieux du Stade calendar (above).

[Photo: Dieux du Stade]

Castro Confidential hits the road -- again!

I'm off to Paris with Sparky and my father. See you after Oct. 14!

A day before I leave on a trip to France, it looks like I'll be leaving summer-like weather behind in San Francisco: It's going to be mostly sunny this afternoon, with highs in the 60s and 70s.

We couldn't ask for better weather for today's Folsom Street Fair: It's going to be sunny, with highs in the 70s.

Have you polished your boots, yet, for tonight's Magnitude? It's going to be sunny today, with highs in the mid-60s to lower 70s.

It's Five O'Clock

R.I.P., dancing queens?

The San Francisco Bay Guardian's homosexualist nightlife critic ponders -- and I mean ponders -- the decline of gay-boy circuit music like Out Anthems 2 (left). "The once-omnipresent, thousand-nostriled behemoth of overbearing, poorly produced circuit and 'progressive house' music has been somewhat tamed,'' the slyly named Marke B. says in this story.

Cycling into Folsom Street Fair weekend

Tonight's Critical Mass marks the 15th anniversary of the San Francisco bicycle protest event that's been copied in hundreds of cities worldwide. Plus! We love all those muscular thighs and even more muscle-ly butts. Folsom Street Fairies can navigate their way through Frisco this weekend with urban travel guide Gridskipper's handy-dandy roundup of fun places to see and be seen. Also, sex-toys retailer Good Vibrations, struggling to stay afloat amid heightened competition from online merchants, has agreed to be sold to a Cleveland company that plans to expand the chain.