• Vancouver's first gay hotel, Farenheit, does more than cater to the man-on-man market: It offers a clothing-optional floor for guests who choose to walk to the ice machine in the nude. [Hotel Chatter]

• The gays came out in droves to audition to be one of Joan Rivers' three co-hosts for her new Bravo show, including Queerty's own Bradford Shellhammer. [NYO]

• Another day, another African nation with a poor gay rights record. This time it's Uganda, criticized by the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission for banning gay marriage — though the the nation's minister of ethics and integrity says the law (to quote the article) "does not discriminate against gay people but at the same time does not encourage." Meanwhile, sodomy remains punishable by life in prison [All Africa]

• To help "celebrate" a year of increased ousting of gays from the military, some queers got together in Roseville, Minnesota, for a sit-in at an Army recruitment office. Photo evidence included. [EAS]

• Cracked, relaunched. [Cracked]

• As much as you love Google, they'd prefer you stop using it as a verb. Actually, they love that you use it as a verb, but their trademark lawyers do not. [Jossip]

• Happy birthday, Madonna. With a new year comes a new image, no? [PITNB]

Oh Canada, always on the forefront of civil liberties for the gays. First gay marriage, now a gay hotel with a "clothing optional floor" and a "M2M Playspace."

Let us first say that the word "playspace" makes us want to barf, and the rest of the details about Vancouver's Fahrenheit Hotel don't really help to keep our lunch down either. Along with being "very European," the Fahrenheit provides "the hottest opportunities for the contemporary gay traveler to find what he is looking for. Our warm and friendly staff offers you a discreet haven for a truly pleasurable and memorable stay."

We're not sure why it's called the "Fahrenheit" since they doesn't even know what that is in Canada, but regardless we think a better name might be Wet Palms [link NSFW].

Vancouver's First Gay Hotel Has 'Clothing Optional' Floor [Hotel Chatter]
The Fahrenheit Hotel [Official Site]

Daytime brought us some new views of Vancouver that didn't involve a man girating around under a stream of water (thank goodness!), and of course we devoted an afternoon to wandering around Davie St., the center of Vancouver's "gay village" (that's what they call the gay neighborhoods in Canada. We think it is cute and reminds us of Smurf Village for some reason).

We started with breakfast at the Elbow Room Cafe, where everyone flocks not only for their pan-fried cinnabon buns, but also to be insulted by the waitstaff. When we were looking at the ketchup bottle to see if it contained corn sweetener, the waitress smirked at us and said, "It's ketchup honey. What, you don't have one of those back at your trailer? You've only ever seen those squeezy bottles?" Later she playfully berated a foreign woman for not getting her own coffee, which is one of the house rules. We posted them all after the jump if you're curious.

Next stop was the legendary Little Sister's bookstore, which was embroiled in a legal battle with the Canadian government a few years back over importation of "obscene" materials. Most of the smut they sell is imported from the U.S., and Canadian customs was confiscating some of it! We won't ask what they did with it if they don't tell. Little Sister's has an ample selection of fiction, self-help, and art books, and also a nice rack of vintage porn mags, but we were most excited about finally getting to flip through this book. We haven't laughed so hard in recent memory.

We had another nice shopping moment when we discovered this rack at a vintage store on Davie Street:

After a little research, we discovered that yes, the hanky code is still alive and well in at least one Vancouver gay bar. Most of the bars and clubs are also located in the neighborhood, so you can have a very homosexual day and night and only walk a few blocks. See a couple more photos of the Elbow Room after the jump.

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While Calgary was a charming city (and by charming, we mean creepily conservative and unwelcoming), we had to push on to Canada's shining western jewel, and the last stop on our road trip: Vancouver. It's a city that has it all: beaches, mountains for hiking, shopping, restaurants, and lots of hideous, expensive condos clogging up the otherwise beautiful waterfront. Since it was Thursday night, we were happy to be there instead of say, Saskatoon, because we knew that there was fun to be found.

After a false start at a club called Shine in historic Gastown (and by "false start" we mean a club full of straight frat boys dancing ironically to the Eurhythmics), we ended up at Odyssey for their Shower Thursdays, which involves the not-entirely-original concept of a live man "bathing" in an installed shower for drooling homo spectators. Odyssey also has a large patio out back, but we could not check it out because there was a huge line of smokers waiting to get a puff outside, and unlike real Canadians, we cannot abide waiting in line, especially for anything nightlife related. We would rather sit at home and watch Top Model. Actually we would rather watch Top Model than even go out to a club at all, so maybe that's a bad comparison.

Nevertheless we had a good time at Odyssey in the spirit of travel. The music was good, the place was packed, and the shower experience was larger than life. See what we mean after the jump [NSFW].

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