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4/25/2014
The passing of another gay bar in Silver Lake inspired social media pundits to proclaim our love of watering holes is dead. They blame the very bucket that carries their witty water—the internet—with sites like Adam4Adam, Manhunt and the headless, toned torsos on Grindr. I write this without malice but merely as a statement of fact: Bullshit.
The number of gay saloons in L.A. has always waxed and waned. Slim Gordon’s, Bradley’s, Numbers (both of them), Jade Room, Carriage Trade, The Palms Bar, Probe, Streets of Paris (that one even had gloryholes), MJ’s, The Other Side, The Friendship and a ...
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3/31/2014
A Tale of Drugs, Drowning & Death
It sneaks up on you like a coyote in a dog park—one day you are chasing a couple balls, the next you are being eviscerated. With booze it generally takes a few years. With drugs like GHB and meth, your first walk in the park could be your last.My stumble into the steam was a steady flow of chardonnay. The self-imposed grape-swig twisted a fairly nimble creative energy into something about as clever as a bag of ferrets. It was a slow stroll. My steadiness on terra firma is one of those ‘one day at a time’ things you’ve ...
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3/21/2014
I think it’s likely that Justin Bieber is a major asshole. I have no real clue—just an innocent observation. He is hot, (in a twink sort of way) on the cover of the new Rolling Stone. I have seen him move on the tube, and that was cool. I’m fairly certain he has style, but he is not a star. I’m also cognizant and cop to a generational gap here, yet even with a gun to my head I couldn’t name a single song of his. We are likely not far off from “Justin who?”
I do wonder when the ...
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3/7/2014
Benevolent is a grand word. I like it. It’s a word that fits ubiquitous publicist Howard Bragman to a T. In any given week he is on national television two or three times. His carefully crafted campaign to bring football player Michael Sam out of the closet was without challenge the biggest PR announcement in NFL history, all beautifully conceived and orchestrated by Bragman.
Bragman’s regular gigs include an ABC network deal with perpetual appearances on Good Morning America and ABC World News, plus bits on MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, Extra and CNN. He always delivers his take on celebrity crisis ...
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2/13/2014
Hollywood Squares Host: Paul, in the movies, Frankenstein’s monster was always big and ugly. And he had lots of scars. What was his biggest fear?
Paul Lynde: That the girls would be turned off by his big nuts!
Host: Paul, according to the old song, “At night, when you’re asleep, into your tent I’ll creep.” Who am I?
Paul: The Scoutmaster!
It’s amazing to me that Paul Lynde has been gone for 32 years now. He was a terrific character actor and comedian, and he was my friend.
Lots of people know Paul and his sniggering delivery as Uncle Arthur ...
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1/31/2014
As a Southern California kid, I have always so appreciated her beaches, weather and wine. And just over the past few weeks it has occurred to me just how fortunate we are to have amazing—and now historic—music venues always at the ready. A few are gone, but most keep rockin’.
Outdoor trophies like the Greek Theatre and the Hollywood Bowl helped create a lifetime of memories for the hooligans I call friends. We used to go to the Universal Amphitheatre before it had a roof. When they put a ceiling on it, I managed a mega pop star who sold ...
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1/20/2014
I’m drawn to obituaries, not to death. Like a bunch of us, I have lived through so damned much death that I can’t bear to live with it anymore. But I do enjoy reading of one’s life once they are gone. The other day there was an obit in the LA Times about a dame who croaked while riding her bike. She ran into another bike. Presumably the loved ones who wrote the capsulization of her frigging entire time here thought it significant to mention she was wearing her helmet. I mean, that’s funny, right?
So I’m altered by people ...
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1/5/2014
“People need to shake off this lethargy. People need to buck up,” President Obama said last week about his health care plan. Hell, he could have been speaking about Congress, drones and climate change—in fact, any myriad of challenges where we the people seem content with inaction. Apathy is a strange state of mind. I think public apathy is way more powerful than public opinion. In 2011, West Hollywood voter turnout was just 25 percent, and last March, in a kind of ‘don’t vote, you’ll only encourage them’ mindset, the blasé proletariat neglected the count down to 20 percent. So ...
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12/20/2013
I’m happy to see few things of late have churned up the passion of WeHo’s fecund denizens more than cocktail impresario David Cooley’s unveiling of the plans and drawings for his proposed eponymously titled eatery and saloon, Cooley’s.
David is president of The Abbey, the fiercely successful coffee house turned mega-watering hole he opened in 1991 and sold to SBE Entertainment Group in 2006. It is the highest-grossing gay bar in America. That it is a gay bar is debatable, as the joint wallows in multiculturalism most nights. The Abbey is likely the most inclusive establishment in our burg since ...
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12/5/2013
I have been thinking a bit about the concept of community lately. It’s a damn perplexing noun. It is one of those ‘one size fits all’ words that is grievously overused, never more brazenly than by we festive gay units.
‘Community’ can mean a veritable boatload of stuff. It can be used to describe a hamlet, village or town and even interacting living organisms. It can help define a ménage sharing beliefs, resources, preferences, needs or risks. It is just an identity to assist the masses to feel massively more comfortable to identify a superabundance of like junk.
Our councilmembers ...
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