To herald the arrival of NewNowNext Design, mama Logo's new style and fashion site, we thought we would look back at some of the most dubious fashion trends perpetrated by TV, movies, and music. Now, keep in mind that I'm one of those gays who has absolutely no fashion sense myself, so instead of calling these "bad" fashion trends, let's just call them ... "memorable".

Aerobics chic
As perpetrated by: Flashdance

The 1983 hit Flashdance gave us plenty to squeal about: the classic soundtrack, with Giorgio Moroder at his most 80's, the introduction of future L Word icon Jennifer Beals, and a fashion statement that would soon have millions of women showing up at the aerobics studio in leg warmers and ripped sweatshirts. Even Snoopy was a maniac on the floor, starring in the Peanuts special It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown.

$400 shoes
As perpetrated by: Sex and the City

They're just shoes. They perform the same function as my Payless Clearance Special, but for some reason they cost $400. I'm talking, of course, about Manolo Blahniks, the Holy Grail of Carrie Bradshaw and thousands of other sexy single girls. Who needs things like heat, and food, and shelter when you can spend a week's paycheck on an ugly, uncomfortable piece of plastic?

Men in pastels
As perpetrated by: Miami Vice

Pastels. I still see them in my nightmares. Miami Vice taught us that men can look like "Party Mints" and still be macho and tough! And that rolled up jacket sleeves never lead to permanent wrinkles, and no one ever has sweat stains in South Florida.

See more memorable fashion trends after the break!

You didn't think we'd go into Mother's Day weekend without paying tribute to those wacky ladies (real and otherwise) that gave birth to our fabulousness, did you?  If you can't surprise your Mom with Sunday brunch or a T-shirt with your face on it, be sure to call her/them and express your love and gratitude for raising such a fierce child. 

It is, after all, Mother's Day so just remember, kiddies ... without Mothers there'd be no frakkers; without Mamas there'd be no Mia's, and the most important lesson of all: those lovely ladies that brought you into this world can take you out just as easily (sorry, I had to), so celebrate them!

Sit back and relax as I honor some of my favorite real-life Moms, as well as those from television and movies that represent the good, the bad and the ugly of memorable mamas.

THE NEWBIE
Lily Van der Woodsen (Gossip Girl)

Gossip Girl's Lily Van der Woodsen is a complex character who wants to be a better woman, Mother and lover than her upper crust gal pals and family will allow and I currently heart her. Sure Lily will marry any Tom, Dick or Bart for their money and she'll go to great lengths to save face amongst the Upper East Side elite and yes, she had a mini-meltdown when evil Georgina outed her son Eric at the dinner table but she came around in the end! Kelly Rutherford has taken what could have been a one-note rich bitch and made her a woman to root for. PFLAG will never be the same.

THE SEMI-OLD PRO
Nora Walker (Brothers & Sisters)

Nora Walker meddles and occasionally messes with her children's lives but she's always best friend and supporter to her gay son Kevin Walker (Matthew Rhys) on ABC's Brothers & Sisters.  Sally Field is a powerful presence on screen and she can dominate the drama like no one else but she always let's her character live and breathe the world of her children (often to a fault) and she's really embraced Kevin's relationship and soon to be marriage to Scotty (played by Luke MacFarlane).  Nora could teach Lily a thing or two about patience and acceptance.

THE TRUE OLD PRO
Debbie Novotny (Queer as Folk - US)

Debbie (or PFLAG The Clown as my friend Armando likes to call her) could school all other Mother's on how to support your gay child and every fey friend that makes up his/her gay gang.  She's been crazy involved in her son Michael's (played by the adorable Hal Sparks) social and sex life so if you have questions on which gay clubs to haunt or which lube works best she's your go-to-gal.  Debbie does the gays proud and I salute her efforts and enthusiasm in grounding the sometimes outrageous Queer as Folk.

THE LEGEND
Anne Bancroft (Torch Song Trilogy's Ma Beckoff | Home For The Holiday's Adele Larson )

Anne Bancroft played two of the most memorable Gay Movie Moms from two of my favorite films with gay characters. In the classic Torch Song Trilogy she was the conflicted, confused, and sometimes pain in the ass Ma to Harvey Fierstein's Arnold Beckoff. In the end she realized that no matter how you raise them, sometimes kids really do "come that way."  In Jodie Foster's Home For The Holidays, she was the Mom most in need of a Silkwood shower and a neurotic nag to her gay son Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.) but she was never anything but amazing.  Rest In Peace Anne Bancroft (1931-2005).

THE ASS KICKER
Sandra Gangel (Beautiful Thing)

Sandra's the kind of woman that's not afraid to stand up to an abusive Father, knock out a whacked out Mama Cass lovin' neighbor, and encourage her gay son to make his own kind of music. Linda Henry's multi-layered performance in Beautiful Thing has always forced me to stand up and cheer.  She's funny, intense, and ruthless but encouraging and nurturing to not only her gay son Jamie but his teenaged lover Ste.  The final scene of the film is one of endless hope and utopia made even more amazing by Sandra's fearless efforts to accept her son.

Brazil is launching a new AIDS awareness campaign targeting young gay men. According to official data, in the past 12 years there has been a significant increase in the percentage of gay males between the ages of 13 and 24 affected with AIDS. The government is hoping to get the message of safe sex out there with a series of provocative ads, including the one above, which is a take-off on the poster for American Beauty.

This isn't the first time that the Brazilian government has raised eyebrows with safe sex campaigns. In 1995, they caused outrage with a commercial of a man having a condom conversation with a certain part of his anatomy. And in 2002, the same thing happened when they aired a commercial of parents having a heart to heart with their gay son. You can see that commercial after the break.

There's a toy sweeping the nation, and it's bringing up interesting gender issues. They're called Ugly Dolls, and they're being cherished, adored, and obsessed over by...boys. As this article points out, boys aren't afraid to be seen carrying around or even cuddling these cute plushies.

When I was a kid, the gender lines were very well drawn, and to cross them meant certain taunting and bullying. I learned that lesson at a young age when I was seen playing with my sister's toy oven. Because of my appetite for dry, flavorless cakes cooked by a Christmas tree bulb, I was known for years afterward as "HOLLY HOBBIE".

A Japanese company has announced that they will be selling a Game of Life customized to your specifications. Along with the option to add pictures of yourself and your loved ones to the box and gameboard, this version will also allow you to dictate what 56 of the 99 spaces on the game board will say. The price tag on a personalized game is a bit high ($350), so it's for dedicated fans only.

That got me thinking, though, about the kind of spaces you might come up with if you wanted to create a gay version of Life. Here are some thoughts of what might fill a gay Game of Life:

• Win a reality show where you fool a woman into thinking you're straight. Collect $10,000 in winnings, but give each player $1,000 to buy your dignity back.

• Adopt a cynical, gay, teen runaway. Collect $1,000 in gifts from each player, but lose a turn spent trying to convince your adopted son you won't abandon him like his birth parents and many foster parents did.

• You and your partner get in a fight while playing The Game of Life when he grabs a pink peg instead of a blue one upon landing on the "get married" space. Lose a turn.

• An anonymous delivery of pear and Gruyere pie precede a sudden burst of energy. Take another turn after breaking out into a chorus of "Morning Has Broken".

• You take your partner to meet your Gay Men-zuh group. His lack of brainpower is mistaken as a dry sense of humor an invited to join the group. Pay $100 to the bank to cover his membership dues.

• Get left behind on a deadly television satellite by your time traveling companions and overshoot your return trip. Start over.

• The neighborhood revolts over the ugly fountain on your front yard. Pay $500 to the bank for Neighborhood Association fees.

• Bust out your Tammy Wynette-obsessed cousin from the mental hospital. Collect $250 when you rent out the spare bedroom to him.

• Settle a potential harassment lawsuit after your boss outs you so that he can demonstrate his gay-friendliness. Collect $25,000.

How would you make a gay-customized Life game board? Let us know in the comments!

Hank Azaria may have his problems with George Takei, but Gay.com's Jenny Stewart points out that Howard Stern hasn't shied away from the actor after coming out.

Stewart explores Takei's history with Stern's radio show, a history that started with an interview Takei did in the early '90s. During the interview, Takei uttered an "Oh, my." in his deep and unique voice. Takei's distinct intonation tickled Stern and his producers and those two words from the interview became a sound drop that would be used to punctuate any shocking comments made on the show.

When Takei came out in 2005, Stern's show was part of his media tour. While most post-coming out interviews with Takei was safe and polite, Stern asked the same kind of rude and intrusive questions he's known for asking heterosexual celebrities. Takei discussed his life with an openness and an ability take Stern's ribbing. The interview was a frank discussion of gay sexuality on a show with an audience that doesn't seek to learn about gay experiences... and Stern's audience reacted so positively to the interview that Takei was invited to be a part of Stern's new satellite radio show when it debuted in 2006.

Since then, Takei has been treated like any other participant on the raunchy talk show. One important period came after a segment on the show caused a fight between Takei and his partner, Brad. Stern and crew discussed George and Brad's fight the same as any other couple, putting out a message that George and Brad's relationship was no less valid because they're gay.

The power of Takei's presence on Stern's show is that he's reaching an audience that isn't exposed to gay people in most of their media choices. If Stern weren't as powerful a talent, he'd probably be fighting with a marketing executive insisting that Stern's audience would desert the show if the continued to hear about a gay man's experiences. Instead, Stern is showing his audience that a gay man can be a part of the gang.

I remember watching Stern when E! first attempted to put Stern's radio show on TV and his relationship with Takei doesn't surprise me. Back in the mid 90's Stern had no problem discussing gay life with a gay intern. Back then, gay media wasn't so easy to find and I learned a lot about gay culture from watching Stern's show -- while I was still getting comfortable accepting who I was, Stern's show was one place where I felt safe learning about being gay while sitting in the lounge of a college dormitory.

I previewed the iPhone for a music blog I write for, and was all OMG what am I supposed to do with this paltry little 8 gigs of storage the iPhone has? Am I the only person who believed Apple when they said I had to take all my music with me everywhere I go, and who has 14 gigs of music on their iPod?

However, the problem isn’t how I’m going to scale back my music library to cram into 8 gigs of storage space. It isn't even that it’s too expensive (although it is), nor that the web access is slow (although it is), nor that the battery is almost irreplaceable and has a projected life of only around one year, nor any of the other problems the otherwise star-struck reviewers have mentioned in passing.

No, although all those things are undeniably problems, they are nothing compared to the question of what I'm going to do with the 30 or so gigs of lesbian/gay television programming I have on my 60 gig video iPod.

So tell me, Apple: What do you want me to delete to fit my digital library onto this pathetic tiny little greatest-electronic-toy-ever-marketed?

It's a movie spoof! It's Japanese! It's Gay! What more could a boy ask for on a Friday afternoon? We thought we'd give you a little something to laugh at while you're killing time until the boss says you can leave early for the holiday weekend. (Like you're actually working)

I've never been a big fan of James Cameron's schmaltz-fest Titanic, but it's impossible to deny that Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet's scene at the front of the ship has become as iconic as Meg Ryan's deli scene in When Harry Met Sally or that scene in Maurice when James Wilby and Rupert Graves are finally reunited in the pillow-laden boathouse and they kiss and then...or maybe that's just me.

It's so refreshing that The Star channel (a Japanese cable channel, or so I surmised as their entire website is in Japanese and I can only assume so much due to context) didn't go the whole Snicker's route with a gay-panic ending, or even the accidental embarrassing positions route. Instead the two men fully assume the roles from the movie, displaying affection and pleasure in the moment. Japanese society is so fundamentally different than America's in so many ways; it would be interesting to see how this ad was perceived by its intended audience.

Do you and your friends argue about who knows the most about gay culture? Can you identify the movie where Karen Black plays a transsexual or the talk show host who put money into the Broadway production Taboo?

If that's the case, there's a board game that could help determine who deserves to wear the gay trivia tiara, Homogenius a gay trivia game.

The game was created by Marianne, Allison and Chris Tranni after a night of playing Trivial Pursuit with their gay uncle Chuck. For fun, Allison added a gay twist Uncle Chuck's questions, turning "What famous person..." into "What famous homosexual..." That got them to realize that there weren't any trivia games focused on gay culture, prompting the Tranni family spend 15 years developing the game.

Homogenius' game board is a closet and players advance "out of the closet" by answering trivia questions about gay culture. The visual design is heavily inspired by Uncle Chuck -- the game's closet is based on Uncle Chuck's closet and the box inspired by his favorite Louis Vuitton trunk.

The Homogenius website, has a few sample questions to whet your appetite. Sample "Potpourri" questions focus on fictional gay characters while "Rumor" questions ask you to identify gay celebrities by their accomplishments. I probably wouldn't get most of those questions if I played the game, though many would lead exclamations of "Aw! I knew that!" How would you do?

Thus endeth another week and the AfterElton crack team of Flying Monkeys is almost as relieved as Don Imus must be. I hope you've got nice weather headed your way, but Brian tells me so much rain is expected in New York that the animals are pairing off and looking for anyone named Noah. Might be a good weekend to stay in and watch Entourage which I explain in this week's BEST.GAY.WEEK.EVER! column is centered around Ari's (Jeremy Piven) out personal assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee). Check back on Monday for our short interview with Rex about what went down--or nearly so--on Sunday night's episode.

Sunday night you also get to meet Kevin's (Matthew Rhys) next love interest on Brothers & Sisters. He's played by Eric Winter and is Senator McCallister's younger brother. No same-sex kisses this episode, but there are fireworks. Oh, and Kevin continues to botch things up romantically. Sigh.