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Rugger's Delight – Bingham Cup Photos: Gareth Thomas, Ben Cohen, the Players & The Queen!

Click HERE or scroll for the Flickr slideshow version.

At last, photos en video (above) from the gay-inclusive, international rugby tournament, the Bingham Cup, held in Manchester June 1 – 3 (Great Britain’s Queen’s Diamond Jublee weekend), courtesy of  the event’s top sponsor, dating site Gaydar.net. Featured in the slideshow are the rugby teams the Kings Cross Steelers (green and blue), the Sydney Convicts (black, blue and white) Straffe Ketten (blue and gold) the Manchester Village Spartans (black, red, yellow) the Chicago Dragons (light blue, red, white) and the Ottawa Wolves.

Also seen, of course, are gay rugby god Gareth Thomas, Bingham Cup spokesman and StandUp Foundation founder Ben Cohen and Alice Hoagland, mother of Mark Bingham–the Cup's namesake, San Francisco Fog team member and American hero who died along with fellow passengers bringing down United Airlines Flight 93 on 9/11.

For some great reportage on the Bingham Cup, drop by Outsports.com. We'll leave you with another shot of Bingham Cup winners, the Sydney Convicts.

We've Got an Art-On for BLOWOFF Poster Designer Linas Garsys. Meet Him and Win a BLOWOFF Poster!

On June 22, BLOWOFF—the  hurly-burly music-lovers dance party hosted and DJed by musicians Bob Mould and Richard Morel—will celebrate its 5 year NYC Pride anniversary at The Highline Ballroom.  While the parties have long had a rep for great music, men and muscle, the slap on the ass has always been those sexy BLOWOFF flyers floating around town the week before.

In honor of the big 5^th anniversary, Bob and Rich are giving away five 11 x 17 very-suitable-for-framing, heavy stock, BLOWOFF mini-posters (first slide above). Just go to www.blowoff.us to find out how to win one.

Meanwhile, we thought you’d like to meet the man behind the art, so here’s a quick 5 Q&As with graphic designer, BLOWOFF man creator and all-round babe, Linas Garsys.

1 How did you hook with the BLOWOFF guys, Richard Morel and Bob Mould? I met Bob and Rich at one of their early BLOWOFFs in the basement of the 9:30 club in DC, when they first started doing the parties there. We ended talking a lot about different music. I had a blast that night. So, I brought samples of my work to the next one, and it all kind of went from there.

2 Are these real guys in the posters? Some of them look familiar? The majority of the early posters were what I call unicorns—basically puzzles made up of different guys, but these days, more and more of the posters are real guys. I have guys who I’ll ask if they would mind being in a poster, but then I also get emails from guys asking to be made into posters. From the beginning, my inspiration or idea for the art was always constructivist/circus sideshow art. Fantasy men, but one that you might actually run into. I guess that's why I started doing more actual people instead of smoke-and-mirror adaptations.