Facebook as Blog

It seems like I have been using Facebook as my de facto blog for the past, oh, year or longer. I'm putting up links to my stories and any ol' interesting thing I fancy (or loathe).

Meanwhile... my first story for the NY Post is slated to run on March 29th. I'm staying mum about its subject/topic until it runs.

More to come. Or... just check my facebook!

L

I Won! I Won!

Well, WE won! Los Angeles' Outfest honored BearCity with two awards: Outstanding Screenplay (by myself & Doug Langway) and Outstanding Male Actor (Stephen Guarino).

A real affirmation that we not only gave the "bear" crowd the date movie they had been waiting for, but also that we managed to touch universal hearts and funny bones.

Thank you Outfest and the BearCity family!!!

L
ps - that's me, Doug, and Producer Lewis Tice in the photo...

Arizon-ugh

As a professional travel writer, my job and personal passion is to encourage people to see more of the world, to diversify their views, and to stimulate the places they visit both economically and culturally with their own presence.

So it's always heartbreaking, if not angering, to see a city behave badly, as it were. To espouse ignorance or bigotry. And Arizona, boy oh boy, have you gone and done that.

As Bill Maher recently observed, there is no Nazi movie without the line "show me your papers." The phrase is as anti-freedom as it gets. It's scary. I can imagine some frail Holocaust survivor, of which there are few left, in Arizona being asked to "show me your papers." It wouldn't be a shining moment for them, that I can assure you.

And now this news??

I encourage Arizona's tourism department to make a stir. This is only going to hurt Arizona tourism-wise. Barring perhaps some white supremacist conventions, I can't see this being a draw for the state.

Funny enough I was stuck in Phoenix for a night in January when a storm canceled my connection flight and closed the airport. I thought, were this any other time, I would love to spend some time here. And I do want to go, to write about Arizona. But.... well, I'm not alone in saying that's going to wait.

Arizona, do whatever it takes and get rid of that law!

L

Spelt Like This

OK, so when I was a freshman in college I found this single, "Contract of the Heart" by Spelt Like This, in a Yale-area record shop (mind you I didn't go to Yale, just went there to hang out and shop and see art films). I knew nothing about the group, but really liked this ditty.

Years later, with everything online, I found the video on YouTube.

Oh boy.

I don't think that guy is at all interested in a "woman to man" situation unless it's strictly professional. This video is insane. It's nuts. I'm not sure how I feel about the song now. Do I like it more? Less? Will I be able to separate it from the almost-as-gay-yet-supposed-to-be-straight Big Fun group that is performing here? Can I live with their lies?

L

Sunshine

How lame am I? No updates in forever. So lame!

Sunshine and spring has finally come to New York, and today seemingly everyone in the city went outside to take advantage. It's like a tube of Pillsbury biscuits was twisted open with the dough exploding out the sides, everyone was so sick and tired of the winter they absolutely had to be outdoors. Shake Shack had what seemed to be a 3-hour-long line (you definitely deserve verbal abuse if you spend 3 hours waiting on a line for pretty much anything unless you're in 1980s Russia or a hospital).

Even though much work to do this week, I want the sun and spring to stay. Working indoors is a happier affair with that through the window...

L

My Hong Kong wine story

My first story from my recent trip to Hong Kong is a post about the wine scene going on for National Geographic's Intelligent Traveler blog (which you should check out regardless - it's a great site!). Check 'er out!

L

Nicholas Hoult on A Single Man

My interview with Nicholas Hoult about his role as a gay lad hot for teacher in "A Single Man" is running in some regional LGBT publications. Here's the version from Chicago's Windy City Times.