Towleroad Guide to the Tube #571

LOOK-OUT: The view from the top of the Burj Dubai.

FLASH MOB: Janet Jackson gets a fan tribute at L.A.'s The Grove.

PYRAMIDS AT GIZA: From the local Pizza Hut.

MO ROCCA: International capital cities vs Venice Beach pull-ups.

For recent Guides to the Tube, click HERE.

News: London Cloud, Rock Hudson, United Airlines, Annise Parker

Signorile on Congress and Obama's LGBT agenda: Why is the "low-hanging fruit" still hanging? And here's the checklist.

Architectural "cloud" proposed in London.

America's Next Top Model's Miss J is the father of a 7-year-old boy: "A French lesbian had asked if we would be sperm donors. "So we thought, 'OK, you want me to do you?' And she was like, 'Ooooh, I'm not that talented.' So I said, 'Okay fine.' So we did a little test tube."

D.C. Council committee advances marriage equality bill: "A DC Council Committee voted 4 to 1 this afternoon to send a bill legalizing same-sex marriage to the full council for debate. Council member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and Judiciary, said the legislation was 'both simple and monumental.' With the committee vote, the full council will take up the bill in early December. It is expected to easily pass."

Virginia lawmaker to introduce legislation extending protections to state workers who are gay or lesbian.

Celine Dion "no longer pregnant".

Opposition party in Australia drafts bill to keep single mothers and gay couples from accessing surrogacy: "Under the laws...introduced, only married and defacto heterosexual couples who have been together for at least two years would legally be able to have a child by surrogate."

First look at The Addams Family Musical.

American researchers "rebuild" sexual organs on rabbits, believe procedure could work on men: "Male rabbits given the implants attempted to mate within one minute of being introduced to a female partner, and 83 per cent succeeded."

REPORT: Rock Hudson's lover Marc Christian has died.

Goran Visnjic to star as Christopher Plummer's boyfriend in the Mike Mills film Beginners: "It’s a Gay-December romance for the ages!"

Houston mayoral candidate Annise Parker gets endorsement from opponent: “One candidate stands out with a 12-year proven track record of public service, particularly in terms of efficient, transparent government, the quality of life in our neighborhoods, and fiscal responsibility, especially important in these difficult economic times."

Ashleigh and Jakob were definitely the best part of So You Think You Can Dance last night.

Lady Gaga gossips about Gossip Girl.

Some photos by Dav.d Daniels from the Mormon testimony at the Salt Lake City LGBT ordinance hearings.

United Airlines pilot arrested for intoxication before boarding a flight full of passengers at Heathrow.

FireDogLake blogger Jane Hamsher talks about the DNC donor boycott: "If you're suppressing your base, and the other side is revving up theirs, and midterm elections are all about turning out the base, I sort of question what their strategy is here."

Ontario gym owner in transgender bathroom legal battle: "A fitness club owner in southwestern Ontario said Tuesday he has wasted tens of thousands of dollars fighting a legal battle with a transgender woman over which washrooms she should use, only to have the case thrown out by the Ontario Human Rights Commission."

News: Maine, Carmen Rupe, Poison, Scott Fujita, Algae, Lady Gaga

Maine feels isolated in marriage equality battle. Help them out here.

Bio-fuel algae high-rise ascends in Boston.

Bitch-slapped over wood: bring this gay interior design duo to America!

Tom Ford's A Single Man to open in limited release on December 11.

The NYT profiles AIDS activist Sean Strub.

Gay divorce case: Right-wing Texans valiantly try to preserve a same-sex marriage. "As Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry says, 'the irony is that the antigay forces are so opposed to gay relationships they won’t even let us out of them.’'"

T.R. Knight talks about Parade and life after Grey's Anatomy: "I just want to be lucky enough to work, and to work with people I admire. I love acting. I love doing work that is challenging -- and slightly terrifying."

Zac Efron twinks out on Nylon Guys magazine.

Carmen Rupe, New Zealand's top drag queen, turns 74: "She opened a string of businesses throughout Wellington - coffee lounges, nightclubs and brothels. But for the first time, they were places that were openly gay and indiscriminating. 'Treated everyone the same, no one was better than the other, whether you were socialite society or down the gutter you know you're all the same to me,' says Carmen."

U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry talks to Out & Equal Workplace Advocates in Florida.

Viggo Mortensen steps out with his murse.

Taylor Lautner gets wet and shirtless for Rolling Stone.

Lady Gaga gets an eye job.

More on Cheyenne Jackson and 30 Rock.

New Orleans Saints linebacker Scott Fujita is not only a friend to the gays, he's also a shirtless stud.

How gay PR man Howard Bragman helps actors say, "I'm gay."

Poison plot in the UK: "A gay man tried to poison his lesbian neighbours by putting slug pellets into their curry after he was accused of kidnapping their three-legged cat. Gary Stewart, 37, had been at loggerheads with Marie Walton and Beverley Sales for months. But things looked brighter when he made a peace offering of some curry, claiming he had ordered too much from the Indian takeaway. When the women started to eat, they found the curry studded with slug pellets. They called the police and Stewart was arrested."

Maine education commissioner asks Attorney General to settle whether the state's marriage equality law will affect schools: “The commissioner felt it would be helpful to put this issue to rest."

News: Taylor Lautner, Harrah's, Swaziland, Gay Ice Cream Truck

Lesbian couple in Swaziland bids to become country's first same-sex marriage.

NY Governor David Paterson shaves his beard.

La Toya Jackson makes video she promised not to make because she just can't help herself.

"Marriage Minutemen" form in New Jersey to oppose marriage equality: "We want to stop any redefinition of marriage that happens without a public vote."

Is this what life without Britney does to a man???

America's first black lesbian mayor, Denise Simmons of Cambridge, Massachusetts, marries her partner Mattie Hayes.

Big Gay Ice Cream Truck a finalist in NYC's Vendy "street food" Awards.

Harrah's Atlantic City casinos in bid to draw gay and lesbian tourists: "Harrah's has been catering to gay and lesbian travelers at its Las Vegas casinos for a few years, but will launch a similar campaign in the country's second-largest gambling market with an 'Out in Atlantic City' weekend of partying Sept. 25-27. The event, expected to draw more than 1,000 people, will bring some of the best-known names in the gay and lesbian entertainment scene to the Harrah's casinos."

Quadriplegic sails around Britain solo.

Renzo Piano's "Shard" to dominate London skyline: "Construction has begun on the Shard, a skyscraper that will be the tallest building in Western Europe and will provide amazing views of London...inspired by towering church spires and the masts of ships that once anchored on the Thames."

Thousands call for Turing apology in Britain.

Possible arson investigated at Stereo nightclub in Montreal.

Sex club planned for historic hotel in Gloucester, UK.

Truman Capote signed one of his books...to Harry Potter: "Howard Rose of Brier Rose Books in Teaneck, N.J., is selling a first-edition copy of Truman Capote’s 1967 book The Thanksgiving Visitor, autographed by the author in January 1978 'for Harry Potter with gratitude.'"

Cranberries to reunite.

Bruce Weber points his lens at Twilight's Taylor Lautner.

And that other vamp, Robert Pattinson, does Premiere.

Gay Big Brother contestant Kevin finally wins Head of Household competition, reads letter from partner of nine years.

Maine governor Baldacci to appear at marriage equality fundraiser.

Full slate of LGBT candidates vie for NYC City Council seats.

Transgender teen in Vermont makes plea for genderless bathrooms: "Kyle Giard-Chase, 16, asked the Vermont Human Rights Commission on Thursday to endorse the effort. He said that before he came out last year as transgendered, he was a three-sport athlete and the co-captain of the field hockey team, a girls' sport, at South Burlington High School. At an away game, he said he was verbally harassed and threatened by the members of the host school's football team for using the girls' restroom. 'The harassment only stopped when I was reduced to tears and told them I was in fact a female,' said Kyle, now a senior."

Hurricane Season: Massive NOAH 'Ark' Proposed for New Orleans

Hurricane season is upon us. So what better time to propose a massive habitat to protect the citizens of one of the nation's most vulnerable cities.

Gizmodo writes: "NOAH (New Orleans Arcology Habitat) is a massive, 1200-foot city within a building that's hurricane-proof and can actually float (don't worry, it's tethered to something or other). Conceptualized through a mind trust of three architectural firms, green (wind, solar and water) energies would help power the structure's 20,000 residences, 1,000,000 square feet of commercial space, school, hospital and, just for fun, 3 casinos."

Watch, AFTER THE JUMP...

Vertical Living

Two artist brothers, Gabriel and Tiago Primo, have taken up residence on a wall in Rio where they spend 14 hours a day eating, sleeping, reading, and climbing from "room" to "room". They've been there since the end of May and plan to stay there until August 20.

Not as hot as this or as strange as this, but I guess something to do for a bit of attention.

Watch a report on the brothers, AFTER THE JUMP...