Kim David Smith is Channeling His Inner Marlene Dietrich 4 Apr 2025, 10:37 pm

International stage and music star Kim David Smith is truly a unique performer. He is keeping the cabaret genre very much alive while channeling the divas of yesterday, namely Marlene Dietrich, who was challenging social and political norms way before Kim’s time. During a time when politics is trying to silence the queer voice, it is only fitting that Kim releases his album, Mostly Marlene, celebrating the cinematic icon and fighting back against the current political climate in his own way.

To watch Kim at work is to watch a master perform. He transports the audience into a world that has one foot in the present day, and the other in any decade he chooses. He is shades of Marlene mixed with shades of the Emcee from Cabaret, mixed with shades of a magician. He is androgynous in his approach, perfectly mixing feminine and masculine to delight. He has been awarded for his work and has been seen around the globe, from Carnegie Hall and Club Cumming to Adelaide and Provincetown. He hails from Australia but has made New York City his home.

His training in the material of divas from Hollywood’s glittered past started early.

Nanny (my maternal grandmother) and I would pour over movie musical coffee table books when I was a child – I’m talking 4 or 5 years old – and I’ve maintained a lifelong fascination with the gorgeous women in those pages, and in the movies we’d watch when she’d babysit me: Judy Garland, Ann Miller, Cyd Charisse (in Singin’ in the Rain?? To die for!), Audrey Hepburn…these were our main gals. I distinctly recall Nanny not being into Marlene Dietrich, which sparked an urgent interest in my mind from a young age! Who is this troubling vixen? Who is this dangerous woman? Nanny is very British, and I think there’s possibly a bit of a World War II hangover there, in terms of Dietrich’s original nationality (Marlene became a US citizen in 1939 and famously denounced the Nazi party.)

Along with his early training in female chanteuses, he also realized early on that he might not be like the other boys.

Well before I understood sexuality, I knew that I had romantic feelings for boys. I remember sort of coming out to mum when I was 10 or so but also sort of not; my very existence outed me, I was never really “in!” I had an innate sense of the fabulous as a child (dress-ups, art class, music, dance – anything to do with expression) and was not at all drawn to sports and such. I’m so lucky to have had supportive, loving parents as an obviously gay child – honestly, their options were few given my sister is a lesbian, and my brother is trans! We are queer as all get out in my family – goddess help my parents if they had a problem with any of that!

Part of the thrill of seeing Kim perform is how he pays homage to an original singer, capturing the movements, the vocal lilts, and the sensuality, but still making the performance all his own. Besides works by Marlene Dietrich, he also works in some Kylie Minogue, Madonna, and Minelli.

My favorite past time is rearranging songs with my beloved friend and music director, Tracy Stark; a perfect afterlife for me would be noodling away at clever, gorgeous new arrangements of Kylie and Marlene tunes in a shabby little midtown rehearsal room with Tracy, for all eternity. Heaven! I’m not sure that’s what Tracy signed up for, but I’m down! Our main, twin focus when rearranging, and making pre-owned songs “Kimmish” is to 1) entertain and 2) get to the emotional core of the song. We love to tell stories, and we LOVE to work out a good gag.

Kim avoids just giving the audience a rundown of Marlene’s life. Mostly Marlene, recorded live at New York’s Joe’s Pub, is not full of factoids but rather stories and captured moments, whether younger fans are familiar with Dietrich or not, they are captivated. According to Kim, the younger, queer generation has plenty to learn from the classic icon.

Everything is rushed nowadays. Extended mixes of songs have a 2-minute duration, albums are 20 minutes long. Marlene took her time. Liza breathes on stage. We, as an audience, breathe with these women as they survey and size us up in between numbers. As to practical, non-performing life, I’m inspired by their boldness, their colossal wattage. For example, if I’m having a rough day, I play Liza (Liza with a Z, or Liza’s Live in New York 1979), and she, with her commitment to being maximally present, usually put me on the path to exuberant serenity. Marlene oozes confidence. I urge the upcoming generations to borrow the strength of these titans, as I certainly do.

Mostly Marlene also features duets with queer elder luminaries like Charles Busch and Joey Arias. In Kim’s opinion, like Dietrich, the younger generation can look to our gay elders for inspiration and guidance.

I very purposely seek out those who have beaten the paths I tread. I think it’s not dissimilar to when you get a really young, social-media-facing queen on RuPaul’s Drag Race, and they’re pitted against a queen who came up performing in the clubs; there’s a lot to learn for those with ears to hear! There’s so much to be said for the experiences of our previous generations, and specifically for gay and queer people who don’t always leave the nest with a full picture of what’s possible for them. I am so proud and so happy to be queer, and I love, love, love to be regaled by my friends in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. They have the best stories! One of my dearest friends, Charles Leslie (co-founder of the Leslie Lohman Museum), is easily one of my favorite people to lose time with – talk about a life lived to the fullest, and none of his storied stories involve a smartphone. Heaven! I am lucky enough to have grown up with gay uncles in a very long-term relationship – Uncle Alan (my biological uncle of the pair) is a wealth of inspiration and storytelling – he saw Marlene live in Melbourne in the ‘70s, and I make him retell that evening every time I see him.

A total delight on Kim’s album is the track “A Little Yearning,” a song he performs with his mother, Linda Randall.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for singling out this song; mum is the absolute brightest light in my life, and it’s my honor, truly, to have her appear on this record. Mum has always made space for me to be myself and continues to be my most unabashed supporter – whether it’s from the audience (ABBA’s “Super Trouper” is one of “our songs”), or in galvanizing and guiding me through the myriad personal crisis that we all wrestle through in day-to-day life – and all from afar! We talk and text often, and I feel enormously connected to her despite the time differences between America and Australia. Actually, our closeness inspired the new lyric I wrote for “A Little Yearning,” the song we recorded together for Mostly Marlene: “I know together we are stardust aglow, connected across the world.”

I’ve been singing “Yearning” for years, and mum has always loved it, and so we thought: why not? Mum even learned the chorus in German for the recording! She’s such a trouper; I love her forever.

Dietrich was openly bisexual. She was a figurehead in Hollywood but also enjoyed the gay bars and drag balls in 1920s Berlin. She stirred controversy with her masculine clothing and sexual energy. Kim has been capturing that essence by encapsulating the best of both worlds – male and female. Over the past few years, it seems that Hollywood’s straight cis males have started to explore both worlds by adopting different expressions of fashion and makeup on red carpets and at appearances. What is Kim’s take on the recent trend?

The thing about feminine-leaning clothing is that it is infinitely more interesting than the drab fare most men wear (or are conditioned to wear). We are living through hyper-visual times, and so it makes tons of sense to me that the straights are dragging up for red carpets and magazine shoots. I’m not sure how earnest these men may be, in terms of relaxing gender boundaries, but I suppose I should be generous in imagining at least some of them may be actually experimenting (and enjoying it!). Marlene loved to get around in trousers. LOVED it. But there were songs she insisted needed to be sung in a gown. Even she, with her nonconformist lifestyle and depictions, had at least some small sense of a binary. Ultimately, I full-throatily celebrate the diminishing of toxic masculinity, and I think playfulness is a great start, be it in clothing, melody of speech, listening habits – what have you! The hard-up, toxic straights have forgotten how to play. I myself love slipping into a gown when the occasion calls for it; I wore the most gorgeous vintage Mugler gown for Death of Classical’s Tiergarten last year (a fabulous Weimar-infused co-production with Carnegie Hall) – and had the time of my life singing Vikki Carr’s brassy “The Silencers” into a harrowing arrangement of “And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda” (popularized by The Pogues). I very much, through the journey of those songs, felt myself dancing across the gender spectrum in real-time. It was magic!

And what does Kim want audiences to walk away with most from experiencing Mostly Marlene?

I want my audiences to feel well-fed, and entertained. I am in some ways a walking, sentient Marlene Dietrich Wikipedia, but my shows are not about education – they are strictly about entertaining and community. And, as to the second point of community, I am proud to create shows at which our queer siblings and allied fabulous folk gather. More than ever before in our lifetimes, we need to gather; we need to celebrate one another, safeguard one another, and we need to tell, hear, and repeat our stories.

The primary mission of the show is exposure. And, by that, I mean the amplification of queerness, and gay voices. And boy, is mine a gay voice! I have a queer voice, a queer story to tell, and have made some fabulous, queer art to share with those whose hearts beat to a similar rhythm.

When celebrating music by Dietrich, Minogue, Madonna, and Minnelli, the word icon gets used. Icons build legacies, what kind of legacy is Kim creating with his work?

As far as legacy goes, I’d love for people to feel inspired to put together a cabaret for themselves and get up on stage. I hope Mostly Marlene causes a billion cabaret artists to find their voices, build their arrangements, write their jokes, and book themselves at the Don’t Tell Mamas of the world. At the very least, I hope I inspire some curious boys to slap on a smouldering red lip.

And what is his message to his fans?

My chief message is thank you! I feel so fortunate to be able to sing these glorious second-hand songs, and so grateful to anyone taking the time to stream and visit with my and Tracy’s arrangements. It’s an honor to be in your earbuds!

Mostly Marlene is now streaming.

Visits KimDavidSmith.com for show dates.

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Gran Canaria is the LGBTQ+ Haven of the Canary Islands 4 Apr 2025, 10:32 pm

To paraphrase an old adage, birds of a feather flock together—while those with more resplendent plumage seek out exotic locales. Consider the LGBTQ+ oases we love the most: Fire Island, Mykonos, P’town, Ibiza, Palm Springs. They’re situated in the most extraordinary locales, often at the tip of the continent—or in some distant archipelago like the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa.

Hardly anyone I knew had visited Gran Canaria, or so I thought, but while traveling in Dublin, I met a male couple who vacationed in Maspalomas at least twice a year, and then my editor from Los Angeles told me he’d been to Gran Canaria, too, and there was also a German man I traveled with who’d relocated from Hamburg to live full-time in Las Palmas. All these birds from different countries were flying to the Canaries and it made me curious, and so I flew from Manhattan to Madrid and then down to Gran Canaria.

An archipelago of seven islands situated 62 miles off the southern coast of Morocco, the Canaries are the southernmost region of Spain, but as one Gran Canarian stated, “We are African people with a European sensibility, and a Caribbean soul.” To her point, Gran Canaria is where Christopher Columbus refueled and refreshed on three of his four voyages to the New World. A centuries-long relationship with three different continents—Africa, Europe, and America—has resulted in a polyglot culture in which the local accent is infused with traces of Cuban and Venezuelan Spanish. Regardless of where you wander on Gran Canaria, there’s a generosity of spirit that makes for an all-inclusive island where everyone is welcomed.

Viewed from the air, the Canaries look like a scattering of green and gold confetti floating on the blue Atlantic. The third largest isle is Gran Canaria, a nearly circular volcanic island that resembles a giant stingray or a skate. Circumnavigated by nearly 150 miles of coastline with forty miles of beachfront, Gran Canaria is also notable for its steep ravines and a mile-high summit. At the southern tip of the island are the famous sand dunes known as Dunas de Maspalomas.

For centuries, Maspalomas and its coastal lagoon La Charca has served as a winter residence for migratory birds such as egrets, spoonbills, ibis, herons, whimbrels, plovers, and sandpipers. These remarkable birds gravitate annually to Maspalomas where they feed and socialize on one thousand acres of living sand dunes. From sunrise to sunset, the lagoon and the surrounding dunes are a veritable avian celebration. 

All of which sounds similar to migratory gays who island-hop throughout the winter, fluttering from island to island in search of sun, sex, and fun. Maspalomas and its sister beach Playa del Inglés have been LGBTQ+ havens for decades, especially for Europeans, and now, increasingly, a certain breed of North American snowbird has discovered this port of call in the Atlantic.

Walking along the oceanfront promenade in Maspalomas, I was often reminded of South Beach’s Ocean Drive during the Versace/Madonna era. The diversity of people, the parade of outfits, café culture and champagne bars, the buzz of nightclubs and music, and of course, the ocean with its broad beach and sugar-fine sand. The entire scene shimmers beneath an endless series of sunny days (more than 330 annually) and an average year-round temperature of 75 degrees Fahrenheit. In short, what’s not to love?

(Photo courtesy of Gran Canaria Turismo)

Prior to its rebirth in the 1960s, Maspalomas was known for tomato plantations and sharecropper housing, all of which changed with the development of tourism. Nearly four million visitors arrive annually on Gran Canaria following in the footsteps of Agatha Christie who surfed the beach at Las Canteras in Las Palmas, and Hollywood film productions, including John Huston’s Moby Dick.

And while we’re on the subject, Gran Canaria is celebrated for its bananas. In fact, the Gran Canarian banana has a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) seal. Notable for its sweetness and an intense aroma, the Gran Canarian banana is far more flavorful than a plain old American banana—and you can taste for yourself with a two-hour banana plantation tour at Hacienda la ReKompensa where raw bananas are but the start of it.

Given the banana’s import on the island, it’s no wonder you see bananas everywhere, and especially in Maspalomas during the various LGBTQ+ celebrations that mark the island’s high season from October through May. This is a town that has numerous Pride celebrations, commencing with Maspalomas Fetish Pride in October, Winter Pride in November, Adventure Week in January, Bear Carnival in April, and the eleven-day Maspalomas Pride festival in May. 

The beach at Maspalomas is lined with oceanfront luxury resorts, including  Seaside Palm Beach and its sister property Grand Hotel Residencia, both of which are situated in an enclave known as the oasis. Named for the indigenous oasis palm grove which surrounds the 10-acre lagoon, the lush neighborhood is comprised of low-rise villas that flank the fabled dunes of Maspalomas. From my oceanfront balcony at Seaside Palm Beach, I watched the migratory birds swoop and dive as scores of visitors trekked along the waterfront and hiked the dunes. At night, the moon rose from the ocean and topped the palms.

Nestled in a nature reserve with lush gardens and five pools, Seaside Palm Beach is the sole member of Design Hotels on Gran Canaria. The crescent-shaped, curvilinear hotel recalls Miami Beach’s Fontainebleau and the Miami Modern architecture of Morris Lapidus. The hotel’s retro Seventies sensibility was recently refurbished by the Paris-based architect and interior designer, Alberto Pinto, who celebrates Seventies glamour with a bold palette of vibrant colors and mid-century design. The five-star hotel’s Bar Salon evokes the classic VIP lounges of the jet-set era, while the hotel’s rooms and suites feature pop art and four distinct color schemes with complementary furnishings. Guests choose from five restaurants including Il Giardino and La Bodega, both of which are overseen by the charming Italian chef Lorenzo Fauri who utilizes local purveyors to honor his grandmother’s recipes. Dolci include a delectable goat yogurt cheesecake and handmade amaretti.

A member of Leading Hotels of the World, the neighboring Grand Hotel Residencia is a serene sanctuary for those guests who prefer a more secluded experience in Maspalomas. Designed to replicate a Spanish colonial hacienda, complete with entry gate and drive, the five-star hotel feels like a private estate amidst the oasis palm grove. Dinner on the terrace at the main restaurant is marked by gentlemen in jackets and a sommelier who showcases a broad selection of Gran Canarian wines.

Presidential Suite at Grand Hotel Residencia (photo courtesy of Seaside Collection)

As tempting as it might be to remain in Maspalomas—and many visitors do—there is much more to the volcanic island. I was told to think of Gran Canaria as a minor continent, complete with various climates and landscapes based on location and altitude. In 2019, UNESCO designated the Gran Canaria Biosphere Reserve which comprises 43% of the island’s central and southwestern landmass. Reason enough to head inland, and so I climbed into a car. After a tortuous road journey complete with switchbacks and hairpin curves on vertiginous roads, we entered into a heavenly Canarian pine forest near the summit of Gran Canaria. Towering over the island at an altitude of nearly 6,000 feet is Roque Nublo, a 250-foot-high volcanic rock monolith that is visible for miles.

We were headed for Parador de Cruz de Tejeda, which is located nearly a mile above sea level. Founded in 1928, the paradores of Spain are a collection of luxury hotels housed in historic buildings or situated in extraordinary natural settings. Each parador excels at regional gastronomy with a commitment to quality and sustainability.

Located in the village of Tejeda, the second smallest village on the island, Parador de Cruz de Tejeda is a cliffside property atop one of the highest points of Gran Canaria. In other words, you’re miles from the scene at Maspalomas and perfectly positioned high above the cloud line. From nearly every room, there are sweeping panoramic views of Roque Nublo and the surrounding mountains.

As the sun set in a brilliant display of orange and red, I watched from the infinity pool which overlooks the volcanic caldera far below. At Parador de Cruz de Tejeda, there’s a strong focus on restorative health and well-being with a hydrotherapy spa that includes Turkish bath, Jacuzzi, hydromassage pool, as well as sauna, steam, and outdoor solarium. Wrapped in white plush bathrobes, guests wander the halls in a state of sated bliss.

At dinner, I sat in the cliffside restaurant, high above a field of billowy clouds that blanketed the mountains in a mystical silver light. Gran Canaria is a certified UNESCO Starlight Tourist Destination, and once night falls, Parador de Cruz de Tejeda offers a stargazing experience complete with resident astronomer who maps out the constellations in a night sky brilliant with stars. For those interested in Gran Canaria’s pre-Hispanic troglodyte past, the nearby village of Artenara features a visitors center and museum that replicates the caves and temples of the island’s aboriginal inhabitants.

Seaside Palm Beach lobby (photo courtesy of Seaside Collection)

Equally fascinating are Gran Canaria’s vineyards and bodegas which produce stellar wines with their own Denomination of Origin. Santa Brigida, known as the village of wine and flowers, is home to Finca Escudero. The vineyards and olive grove at Finca Escudero are meticulously managed by Juan Escudero whose grandfather built the estate nearly one hundred years ago. The Italianate house with its colonnades, porches, and terraces is an exceptional example of Canarian architecture that highlights its idyllic setting amidst lush orchards and flowering trees. As I sipped the estate’s Tempranillo and Marmajuelo wines, Juan reminded me that the Canary Islands have cultivated wines since the 17^th century, another reminder of Canarians’ love for the good life.

Gran Canaria’s gastronomy is a mélange of local produce and maritime flavors seasoned with the culinary heritage of Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Apart from locally grown mangos, avocados, and papayas which are plentiful on breakfast buffets, my go-to Canarian specialty was “papas arrugadas,” those tiny salt-crusted potatoes served with a spicy mojo sauce. Known as “papas bonitas,” the potatoes carry their own Denomination of Origin, and they come in nearly fifty varieties, all of them small and succulent and tremendously addictive.

For caffeine addicts, Gran Canaria produces the only coffee cultivated in Europe, and its strong flavor is often complemented by Gran Canarian rum. In Arucas, the Arehucas rum distillery is the oldest in Europe, and one of the island’s specialties is sweet honey rum, a traditional Canarian liqueur often served as a post-prandial cocktail.

On the morning of my departure, I watched as the sun rose over the beach. The sand was groomed, and the sun loungers were perfectly aligned, facing the ocean. It was the start of another day in paradise and for a moment, I wondered what it would be like to miss the plane and remain in Gran Canaria. No doubt I wasn’t the first person to imagine such a scenario.

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Jenny Hagel is Telling the Jokes Seth Meyers Can’t 4 Apr 2025, 10:20 pm

In today’s unnerving political and social climate, what is funny and what is over the line is up for grabs. Leading by example, we are being told by our leaders that you can pretty much say anything without repercussion. Although it hasn’t been too funny. Leading the fight against stupidity with intelligence and comedy, writer and comedian Jenny Hagel is using her job at Late Night with Seth Meyers to comment on hot topics and promote conversation. As a writer and performer on the show, she is part of the wildly popular segment “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” often touching on issues affecting the queer and minority communities with colleague Amber Ruffin. The recurring segment’s popularity and relevance have made it go viral; she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for addressing LGBTQ topics. The jokes in the segment are oftentimes off-color, and they are damn funny.

Jenny is a six-time Emmy Award nominee and has also written for Impractical Jokers, the Golden Globe Awards, Big Gay Sketch Show, and White Guy Talk Show, among others. She also takes her comedy to the stage with her live show Jenny Hagel Gives Advice. Other than being a mother and comedian, her other true love is giving people advice. In the show, she and a special guest answer queries from the audience, and the results, as you’d expect, are hilarious.

Being funny has always been a part of who she is, even in your youth. Growing up in a mixed household gave her the perfect environment to give her the first taste of comedy.

I was a class clown, and I do feel like I want to issue an official apology in print to any teacher I ever had because I think I was a huge pain in the ass to have in class. I just really come from a very naturally funny family. No one else in my family is in entertainment, but everybody is just very naturally funny. There was a lot of joking around the dinner table, and a lot of joke gifts at Christmas. Just everybody’s very quick and funny. I grew up kind of in that environment on both sides of my family which is funny because the Puerto Rican side of my family is more extroverted, and the personalities are bigger and the other side of my family are white Midwesterners and that can be a much more subdued culture. Dry as a bone, like the driest best delivery you’ve ever heard. So, I think growing up with those two sources of input just kind of led to thinking, oh, this is how you walk through the world, this is how you communicate. You communicate with jokes.

Jenny knew early on that she was different, although not because of her queer identity. The queer sensibility and aesthetic she brings to her work now was not always in place before. Feeling different actually came from being funny.

I think there are two things about me probably that are very atypical. Being queer is something I came to a little later than I think people from the younger generations do now. I think younger generations are exposed to more and are given more language for things earlier. And depending on where they live or what their home life is like, maybe they are exposed to some more open-mindedness and some more accepting cultural influences. So, I think people are able to kind of come out both to themselves and to the world earlier, in some cases. But I grew up in the 80s, barely talked about gay people and if we did, the representation especially of queer women was so narrow. I feel like you would see men on TV, but never in a super flattering light. 99% of the time they were playing a hairdresser, or in the news in a bad way, but I think at least the concept of them was there. But I really feel like there was a kind of almost invisibility and silence around lesbians. And so it just didn’t cross my mind. It wasn’t even like something I was pushing down from an early age. Any representation I’d seen of a lesbian was so cartoonish and then I’d look in the mirror and be like, well, I’m not a cartoon. I’m just a regular boring lady. I was like in my mid to late twenties and I was like, wait a second. Then once it clicked, I was like, oh yeah. It’s like when you see the end of an M. Night Shyamalan movie, all the clues were there.

I think the other thing that felt really different about me was that I like to joke around. That is not a thing that women and girls are encouraged to do in our culture. From an early age, I just really liked to joke around, not even necessarily trying to cut up in class or get attention, I just enjoy jokes. I enjoy hearing jokes. I enjoy having a jokey back-and-forth with a friend. I enjoy an inside joke. I just really love to laugh. I love to try and make people laugh. I got reactions very early on that that was weird. That was not something I should be doing because I was a girl. I was voted Most Humorous in high school, but I really feel like it was because no one else was willing to do it out loud. There aren’t a lot of women who are comfortable making jokes in front of people in a group setting, especially not in a mixed male/female crowd.

She got her MFA in Writing for the Screen and Stage from Northwestern University but it was spending five years at Chicago’s famed The Second City doing improv and sketch shows that really prepared her for her future work.

I would write a sketch, bring it in, and if my director liked it, they’d say, great, let’s try it tonight. Because I got to write and perform the same material, I feel like it helped me learn in my bones what works and what doesn’t. I’m not always a hundred percent right, but it really gave me a very great quick high-stakes education in what jokes work and which ones don’t and why. What was so great about that is that I wasn’t writing a joke for someone else and then they say it and it doesn’t work. If you say it, write a joke and you tell it on stage and it dies, you feel that in your bones.

I feel like that has helped me now as a writer. A lot of my jobs don’t involve performing. So now as a writer, I feel like that has helped me sit down at a keyboard and understand what will work and what won’t. Because I’ve gotten to take stuff out on stage, take stuff out on the road when I was touring with Second City, and perform in all kinds of geographic locations, different venues, big houses, small houses, and learn what works and what doesn’t. Now as a writer, I can take that knowledge and sit down and think, okay, this joke that I’m typing, I think it’ll work best like this.

After Second City, she moved to New York and for six years worked on a variety of TV shows but had always wanted to write for a late night show. As life would have it, she received a text from a friend (and now colleague) Amber Ruffin telling her that Late Night with Seth Myers had a writer opening. In a matter of days, Jenny submitted her packet, and she was hired. She not only joined the show as a writer but has also become a performer. While “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” is quite popular, because of the issues that it brings up, because of the fact that Jenny is queer and Amber is Black, because they are outspoken women, some have called the show and especially their segment “too woke.” Pretty bold for a show on mainstream TV on a major network. How did that wokeness evolve in the writer’s room?

What I really love is that it really came about naturally. It was not a decision of like, hey, now we are going to talk about tough stuff. It all comes from Seth, the tone of that was all set by Seth. I’ve written for other shows where the host is the only person who is talking, and that’s fine, that is a very common structure for a talk show. But what I love about this show is from the beginning, if something happened in the news and there was someone in the writer’s room who was more authorized to speak on it, instead of Seth writing a piece from his point of view, or him saying, “Hey, you write something for me to say,” from the moment I started there, they’d be like, “We’ll make some space on the show for you.” What I really appreciate about the show is that it allows writers to bring their unique points of view.

Not long after she started, she got her first chance. Hurricane Maria had hit Puerto Rico and the president at the time was tweeting nasty things about the situation. Jenny, coming from a Puerto Rican heritage, was the perfect person to comment, and that, she did. Now, many years later, she is dealing with the same government administration inexplicably having to make jokes about a shocking time for the nation once again.

It doesn’t feel great. It feels like when you watch the sequel to a horror movie, and you watch the characters and they’re going to go in the basement again. We all know how this ends. Why are we making the same very bad choice again? So that feels hard. Trying to write about the first Trump administration was so much of just reacting to what was happening and being like, I can’t believe this is happening. But we all saw it for four years. I think it feels different this time. There’s a different kind of heaviness.

I saw how it went. I saw the repercussions. I don’t like it and I can’t believe we have to do it again. A lot of people will say to me, “Boy, this is going make your job really easy” and it’s actually the opposite. Partly because a lot of comedy relies on heightening… you take a situation in the world and then you make it more exaggerated and more ridiculous so that you can make a satirical point, but it’s hard to make a lot of the current news any more ridiculous than it already is. I think that his administration actually makes it harder to write about. Also, there’s the reality that you come to it with the same heavy heart that other Americans have because I’m not just writing about it, I’m also living it just like everybody else is. Believe me, I would much rather be writing from a different time and place.

As far as toning down her segments on Late Night – not going to happen.

I don’t have any interest in building a bridge to the conservative side, that’s not my calling. I have not made any adjustments. I think the best thing I can do as a writer is to write honestly from the place and the moment that I’m in and hope that connects with someone else who feels the same way.

On a lighter note, she is able to share more about what she thinks about life in her continuing live show Jenny Hagel Gives Advice. It is truly a funny night, and you never know what to expect as she takes questions from the audience and answers them on the fly. Giving advice just comes naturally for Jenny, even if it is solicited.

I think I’m just bossy by nature and that’s probably not one of my most fun qualities. I just have always kind of had a thing where if I feel like I have a solution to a problem, I feel like I have to say it out loud. Now, am I arrogant enough to think that those solutions are always right? No, but for some reason, if I feel like, and it can be something big, like if I hear someone saying over and over again that they don’t like their job, at some point I feel compelled to be like, “Hey, I think maybe we have to talk about ways you can leave that job.” But it can be something as small as somebody being like, “Ugh, my suitcase broke.” And I’m like, “Oh my God, I know the best suitcase!” I don’t know what it is, I have this weird compulsion that if I have a piece of information that I think is helpful, I have to get it out of my mouth.

And what advice does Jenny need the most for herself?

I would say time management. I would say clutter management, you can’t see this right now, but by this laptop are a bunch of little piles of things that I have not dealt with. I can be an anxious little dude. I think we kind of live in an anxious world, these are anxious times. So, I probably could use some advice on how to manage that.

As a mother, as a wife, as a queer voice, as a comedian, as a writer, what kind of legacy does she want to create?

There’s so much writing in the world, there’s so much performing in the world. I think at some point it all kind of gets lost in the noise. But I think the only thing I can hope for is to leave behind a body of work that was funny and honest. I hope that if at some point a thousand years from now an archeologist digs up something I wrote they brush the dirt off it and they read it. My hope is that they would think, oh, this is funny and this is honest.

Follow Jenny on IG: @JennyHagel

The post Jenny Hagel is Telling the Jokes Seth Meyers Can’t appeared first on Metrosource.

Nathan Lee Graham is Laying Down the Comedic Gauntlet 4 Apr 2025, 10:13 pm

Mid-Century Modern is this season’s highly anticipated TV sitcom created by Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, the masterminds behind Will & Grace. In an homage to The Golden Girls, the show centers around three gay friends who decide to come together in Palm Springs to live out their golden years, with the wealthiest of the friends bringing along his mother.  The cast is an embarrassment of riches with entertainment veterans of stage and screen Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer, Linda Lavin, and Nathan Lee Graham taking starring roles. Metrosource was on the scene for a live taping, and let’s just say, it’s a gay ol’ time. No doubt the show will have broad appeal, beyond the queer audience, much like Will & Grace. During these trying times, we all could use a laugh to bring us together…and this show has many.

Giving us Blanche Devereaux vibes is actor and singer Nathan Lee Graham. Graham’s extensive career on screen is at the 25-year mark, not to mention a long list of stage credits. On screen, he has appeared in iconic projects like Absolutely Fabulous, Zoolander, The Comeback, Scrubs, Law and Order: SVU, and the list goes on. Being a leading part of Mid-Century Modern just seems destined. He has personally seen and been involved in the evolution of queer representation, seeing gay characters go from sidekick stereotypes to leading characters with complexity. Now he is starring in a major network show alongside two other queer, leading characters.

In a word, it feels amazing. What I’ve always longed for is good writing and fully fleshed-out characters with lots of dimensions, human beings. I didn’t play a gay character until the year 2000 because I would go in for these roles and they would say to me, “Nathan, you’re not flamboyant enough.” I said, “Well, I have a boa in my hand. It’s just that I’m a real human being with nuance.” We can have these flamboyant moments because there’s nothing wrong with being flamboyant. I think it’s exciting not to be a dull person. But we’re also human beings with thoughts and a rollercoaster of emotions, we go through lots of things. This is so exciting to have a project that’s so well-rounded, so well-written. You get to see all the shades, all forms. Yes, the gays do break out into song and dance around their kitchens. I do it alone, so that is real too. But we can also sit down in the kitchen and have a heart-to-heart at that table. You’re going to see all of those things.

Mid-Century Modern comes at a time when our nation is divided. As a queer, Black man, Nathan feels the energy of the juxtaposition of the success of the show next to the current social and political climate. Making this show is his statement.

You lean in and you keep doing what you do. My activism is a bit about showing up. Oh, there’s that bitch again! There’s that Black bitch again. Oh, there she is again. Why? Because I keep working. You’re not going to get rid of me. And when I say me, I mean all of us. So, if you lean in and continue to do the work, wherever it is, you can’t get mired down in the persecution. You can’t get mired down in fearmongering and fear-based things because then you stop. That would be the point for those entities, right? No, what you must do is to continue to work and continue to tell stories and continue to be present and represent. That’s the best sort of activism for me. I have plenty of actor friends who are out there on the front lines and marching and that’s great for them and I certainly support them. This is my way.

Nathan was sought after by Max and David, the show’s creators. After his auditions and a chemistry read with Nathan Lane, he got the call at 10:45 pm that he was cast. He was determined to do the best job he could do, and the script immediately spoke to him.

I just thought it was brilliant. It’s multilayered, it’s funny as hell, and it’s heartfelt. I can’t think of a better ensemble because we’re all from the theater. I just thought it doesn’t get any better than this. And then with Jimmy Barrows directing and the best writing team in sitcom television, the only thing better than this would be me doing a musical of Veep on Broadway.

As Arthur, the homage to Blanche, Graham does share some strong similarities with his character, except for one.

Arthur has a lot more sex than I ever had. But we are alike so much sartorially. The difference is that Arthur is interested in helping other people dress well through his fashion editorials, I don’t care what you look like. You know you look awful, so you don’t need me to tell you this. So that’s the difference between Nathan and Arthur. But we’re both fashion plates. We both shoot from the hip and tell it like it is and we always mean it with love. That connection is real for me. He is just more blunt than I would ever be, but we still feel the same things, he just says it, and I sort of keep it to myself. I love Arthur. He’s so fun.

MID-CENTURY MODERN – “Hello, Fisty’s” – Bunny, Jerry and Arthur return to Fire Island with hopes of hooking up, but the connections they make are not what they expected. Back home, Sybil takes on a scam caller. (Disney/Chris Haston)
NATHAN LEE GRAHAM

Yes, the show centers around the lives of gay men, but that is not the sole audience for Mid-Century Modern. There is plenty of gay humor, but the situations, feelings, and relationships are not bound by sexuality.

Anyone who has a pulse and likes to laugh with a little sprinkling of heartfelt stuff in there, this show is for you. You want a little escape that makes you think about something? This show is for you. If you love The Golden Girls, and who doesn’t? This show is for you. Not because it is the Golden Girls, but because it’s about a group of friends coming together and deciding to live together and mayhem ensues. It’s exciting and it’s fun to watch. It’s fun to turn your brain off for just a moment, to watch something that’s going to make you feel good about yourself, and you might possibly be seen as well, which is always so lovely.

There are many jokes about aging in the show, there are situations directly related to age differences, there is talk of death, and there are comparisons made between the elders of the queer community and the younger generation of gay men. What does Nathan think the younger LGBTQ generation can learn from our more mature queers?

Patience. You can learn so much, but patience is a big one because we’ve lived through it, especially when you’ve lived through the era of AIDS being at its height. Learning that old phrase, “it gets better.” I like to put a little twist on that, what I like to say is “it can get better.” You know, it doesn’t always get better, but it can get better if you listen and choose positive things to be involved with. So, it can get better and the reason you know that is because you have elders who have been through some of the struggles that you’re going to go through. Yes, you have to do them on your own, and yes, this is a different time, and it requires some different tools, but the hard and fast tool tools, the basics, are always the same, right?

We can learn from each other by sharing each other’s stories. And I feel like I learned so much from the younger generation as well, by listening, even though I have to decode half of what they’re saying. But once it’s decoded, I’m like, oh, we’re saying the same thing. It’s just that you’re saying it that way, and I’m saying it this way, and there’ll be a meeting of the minds so we can all learn from each other. Just hold on. My grandmother said to me on her deathbed, she grabbed, she squeezed my hand, and she said, “Outlast them.” And that’s what we need to do about this world and all of the things. That’s a metaphor for everything really.

The show’s four leads are consummate performers, no doubt. But there is chemistry and there is a charm that leaps off the screen. Not only are these actors damn good, but they are also damn good together, each gracefully allowing the other actors to share in the spotlight. No one walks away with the show here because they all do. You would have thought this was the 7^th season of the show. Nathan shares what he thinks the cast all learned from each other…

First of all, we are all fans of each other. So that’s a huge deal when you love someone else’s work. There was no sort of ego cloak and dagger about it. Second, we’re all from the theatre, and in the theatre, you have to be vulnerable right away because we don’t have time not to be. You come together and you have to love each other. Take your clothes off and let’s get to work, right? And so we all have that background. A ball is tossed, someone’s going to catch it, it falls to the ground, someone’s going to pick it up and throw it again.

And that’s just the energy we came in with. We all wanted the best show possible. It was all unspoken. We all are huggers, it’s just that we all happen to be tactile in that way and so that was also another energy that made us come together so quickly. What I’ve noticed with all of my castmates is that each of us looks into each other’s eyes when we’re speaking to each other and when we’re acting together. We’re not only listening with our ears but with also our eyes and hearts, which was unspoken. When you look up and things like this happen, you just embrace it and you keep it moving, so now we can get to work faster. We can play faster, we can enjoy time together faster, and we can support each other when things are not going so well in our personal lives. I’ve loved that. It’s been so wonderful with this cast. They’re so good.

As audiences started to watch live tapings of the show, word was getting out that the show was damn good. That, on top of eager media coverage, made the show popular before it even hit the screen. Magazines, blogs, social media, gossip sites, and more, were all building excitement before an air date was even announced. Tragically, at the height of the media frenzy, Linda Lavin, the Sophia energy of the show, passed away before the season was completed. Cameras stopped rolling, scripts had to be retooled, and the laughs had to continue even with a heartbroken cast. Nathan pauses to reflect on his relationship with Lavin.

The first thing, and the last thing I think of when I hear Linda Lavin’s name is joy and gratitude. That’s what she gave the whole time. She was so supportive. She looked you in the eye, she held your hand. She caressed my cheek. She did all of these things naturally and she listened. She showed you what a pro is all about. She was a “broad” in the best possible sense. She worked from five to 87, literally. It was a gift to have her around. Remember she was 87, she seemed like she was 47. It was a privilege and an honor to work with her. She was at the top of her power still. That’s the way you want to go, quite frankly. And she laid down that foundation for us. I keep saying this, but I really feel it.

She’s the spiritual showrunner of our show. She’s the glue, the puppet master. It was sad and we miss her terribly, but there was nothing tragic about it because she had such an amazing career and life, and that’s the only thing that you’re left with. And that’s how we got through it. The tribute episode to Ms. Lavin is one of the best pieces of television I’ve ever been a part of. It’s just extraordinary. The care that went into it, the commitment to doing our very best. And Nathan (Lane)’s work is sublime, playing her son specifically. I love her so much. I feel her now. I feel her all the time.

With such an extensive career of his own, and with much more to come, and hopefully more seasons of Mid-Century Modern, what kind of legacy is Nathan building with his work?

What I love about all of the work is that it was consistently, hopefully good. That’s what I would love for people to say. Young people always come up to me and say, “Because I saw you in something, it made me feel like I mattered.” I would love for that to continue to be said. And that my work is of the highest quality equality is a lovely thing to be said as well. I care about that very much. Whether I have six lines or 600 lines, I’m going to lay down the gauntlet each time and try to leave an impression of whatever that character might be.

Mid-Century Modern is now streaming on Hulu

The post Nathan Lee Graham is Laying Down the Comedic Gauntlet appeared first on Metrosource.

Murray Hill is Leaning Into Love 1 Feb 2025, 5:02 pm

Murray Hill is larger than life. He’s got a big personality, a positive outlook on life, an infectious style of banter, and an endearing demeanor. It is all presented in a colorful package, suit and all. But it is not just a persona. After chatting with him for just a few minutes, it is clear that he is the real deal. Talking to him is like talking to everyone’s favorite guy at the bar. He’s got stories, jokes, and opinions on life. He’s also got a lot of talent that has taken him from the New York club scene to the stage and screen. You never know where he is going to pop up, from cameos in films to burlesque, from opening for rock bands to performing at parties for Liza, from performing in his one-man show Murry Hill As Himself to co-starring in the hit HBO show Somebody Somewhere. He’s a throwback to classic Hollywood in the style of Benny Hill and Sammy Davis Jr. but with modern flair. He’s unapologetically queer and has moved our community forward in media representation, but without pomp and circumstance, just a lot of heart. There’s a joy to Murray, whether you are talking to him in person or seeing him on stage or screen, but his persona and outlook belie a challenging beginning.

I grew up in a conservative Catholic household and a conservative town. So, my home life was pretty rough. My public life, which when you’re that young is going to school and afterschool programs and sports and all that kind of stuff, is where I really blossomed. I had two very different lives, and I think that set me up quite nicely for the birth of the persona. As I got older, I think I used my humor as a way to disarm all my relationships with people in the town, at church, and my own family. My comedy was to disarm them so that we would all be on the same level. I say it in my show, “If you’re laughing, you can’t be hating at the same time.” It’s actually impossible. So I’ve always had a big personality. Murray looks like all my Italian uncles, and it came out of survival and a coping mechanism, and I’ve made a career out of it and I’m using the same tools that I created to survive then, 40 years later. I’m going to keep building bridges and disarming people so that everyone sees the humanity in the heart first.

Murray knew early on that he wasn’t like the other kids around him.

In first grade I was obsessed with femme teachers, but in a disproportionate way. When I got a couple of years older, I didn’t want to play with the girls, I was just enamored by them. So, I was doing my sports, playing with the guys, tomboy stuff. Then I remember, and this is ridiculous, in Dirty Dancing there’s that scene with Patrick Swayze at Jennifer Grey in the water. He lifts her up and she’s got that wet t-shirt, ahhh. That’s my first memory of consciously being attracted to a woman. And then as quickly as I realized that I was sitting with my brother, and he was like, “What are you talking about? That’s wrong!” Right away it was bad, wrong. So, I was always fighting repression and conservative ideologies and Catholicism and all that stuff. Any feeling I had for a girl or a teacher was bad, bad, bad. I didn’t come out until college. I was a little late bloomer.

Murray would shed his conservative life and find his home, and ultimately his persona, in the heart of the East Village in the mid-1990s, becoming part of the queer club family that would pave the way for other LGBTQ personalities.

What I loved about the nightlife scene was it was all open arms. At that point, New York was a little bit affordable, and everyone went to New York to be accepted for who they were and to find themselves, and to not be judged and discriminated against. The thing about nightlife that was so beautiful, and that I slipped right into, is that it showed me by action, and by these wonderful people, all about chosen family. Back then in the East Village, there were clubs every single night with RuPaul, Mario Diaz, Jackie Beat, Justin Bond, Lady Bunny, Linda Simpson, all those folks. You could go out every single night and spend all this time with these people and you would never ask them about their time before New York. This is our family; this is our safe space. This is where we can be who we are at 2:00am on Avenue A. New York nightlife for me was like going home and understanding what family was. We had so much fun.

I met so many colorful people and that’s when I developed a persona and created an act. At The Cock (club) I sang “My Way” at 3:00am. Everybody was loaded on something. I was definitely on the booze train, and I was so drunk, I couldn’t remember the words! But it was like we were singing at a pub in Ireland. But that was the first time I didn’t know the words, so I just put the microphone out. You have to understand, I’m on a tiny shoebox platform as the stage, clip lights on me, and 200 sweaty people loaded. I put the microphone towards them, and everybody sang out “Myyyyyy waaaaayyy!” I still do that in my act, 30 years later, I put the microphone out to the crowd, and they sing along.

For all the many projects Murray has been a part of, he’s always been referred to and labeled as the community he comes from. Media headlines refer to him as drag king, trans, or queer man Murray Hill. In Murray’s ideal world, those labels wouldn’t be a necessity.

I think there needs to be room for some nuance here because some people need to identify themselves verbally, and that’s what they want to do. “I’m queer” or “I’m trans” or whatever it is, to declare an identity and take up that space and be empowered by it. My whole thing about how I was raised, part of a generational thing, is I don’t want to be treated any differently than anybody else. I want to be treated the same. I want to have the same rights as you. I want to be addressed by my name, I don’t need to have 40 things in front of it. My personal political stance is I am so much more than my sexual orientation and my gender identification. If you said in front of every man like “the male comedian Dave Chappelle,” it sounds weird, right? Because it doesn’t happen. That’s where I come from, I just want to be addressed and seen as an equal.

Murray has been a trailblazer in the drag king world. This coming year, Murray will host King of Drag on Revry TV. It is the first ever televised drag king reality series. Having performed as a drag king since 1995, Murray is elated to be the hype man for the drag king community.

There’s been a lot of controversy over the years that drag kings want to get on RuPaul’s show. My whole motto in this has been, from the very beginning, “If you don’t see yourself represented, go out and represent yourself.” I’ve never wanted to be a contestant on Drag Race, because I am not a drag queen. I would like to be a guest judge, but I don’t want to be a contestant because I want to showcase OUR community. We have to have our OWN show. And that’s not as a separation or a different silo, but this is a community that exists. And I was part of the early representation and now it’s all over the country, and it’s all over the world. And I think it’s important for me because I finally broke through some mainstream media with TV and film and now I’m in a position where I can bring everybody else up and get the spotlight on the kids and show everybody what this scene is. And it’s not just the opposite of drag queens and it’s not just drag kings being like Drag Race, it’s this whole community of people that don’t get the representation, they don’t get the bookings, they don’t get a chance to be on TV ever.

I’ve pitched the show for decades. The response? “What’s a drag king? No one’s going to watch this, it’s too niche.” We could fill up your whole magazine with all the rejections. So, when I met Damian from Revry, I knew that he was not your typical streaming CEO gatekeeper. You have to make an effort to do this, you actually have to make an effort to be inclusive and to be intersectional. It takes action, you can’t just say it. So, when I was speaking to him, I realized that he knew what he was talking about in terms of intersectionality, and he knew this community, and he was in full agreement that it’s time for this community to have its own show and to be represented. The difference between talking to him and any other network executive that I’ve talked to in the last 20 years is that I didn’t have to start off my meeting explaining who I was and explaining who drag kings are. We were already past that and we were in agreement that this has to happen and we’re going to do it.

Regardless of the long list of queer descriptives that come with Murray’s celebrity status, he has managed to break through to mainstream media. He appeared with Amy Schumer in Hulu’s Life & Beth, alongside John Cena and Awkwafina in Paul Feig’s hit movie JACKPOT!, and co-starred with Bridget Everett in HBO’s Somebody Somewhere, and served as a special guest correspondent for ABC News and Hulu. How did he manage to bridge the gap between queer and mainstream work?

The biggest thing that got me to where I am is I did not stop in the face of defeat. As much rejection as I received from networks, from theaters, from clubs, so much this whole 28 years I’ve been doing this, what’s kept me going is the audience. And it’s kind of what’s going on today. The loudest noises are the “no’s” and the “who are you?” niche. “Nobody wants to see this.” And then I’m playing in Alexandria, Virginia, making everybody laugh, being as edgy as I always am and there are all kinds of races, all kinds of ages, folks from the military, politicians… and they’re all coming together and laughing. So that’s what kept me going because I saw it, I saw that Murray isn’t something to be afraid of, it’s something to celebrate. I bring people together and that goes back to the early days of disarming folks. I believed in myself even though, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve been impacted by a lifetime of discrimination from my own family, to society, to the increased trolling on my Instagram page since the Presidential Inauguration. In the face of hate, I’ve kept going.

Even with Murray’s celebrity status, he still has to explain his identity from time to time. In a Metrosource exclusive, Murray revealed that he recently filmed with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the upcoming film, Man With the Bag. Murray was blocking a scene that he was sharing with Arnold while dressed in a Santa suit. The director kept referring to Murray and Arnold was confused as to who the director was talking about, because the director kept saying “he” and “him.” Murray was unphased.

At that moment, I saw the bigger picture that I am with one of the biggest, most masculine, straightest action heroes in the history of show business. A big A-list star. I am Murray Hill with Arnold Schwarzenegger! Now am I going to sit there and be offended that he’s misgendering me and doesn’t know what the hell’s going on? Or am I going to use this opportunity to have empathy? Obviously, he wasn’t coming from a negative place. He just didn’t know what was going on. It’s not part of his world. Or was I going to use my humor and compassion? This is a huge moment for me to be with him, for trans men, for drag kings. It just hasn’t happened before. So, I made it a warm, funny interaction and he looked at me and said, “I think I get it now.” And then action. And then he was patting my shoulder. And that was it. So, part of me being mainstream is I haven’t wavered who I am, which is a warm, open person who wants everybody to get along.

This February, Murray will embark on the West Coast tour of his one-man show, Murray Hill As Himself. The show is a throwback to the old Vegas-style shows (in fact, he will appear in Vegas) with a band with big opening and closing numbers, guest stars, and plenty of comedy. Think Don Rickles meets Belle Barth. Murray will make fun of everything that is going on in the world, not through anger but through camp. Through his comedy, he will hit some hard points, including the current political attack on the queer community. Proceeds from the show will benefit One Voice, a non-profit dedicated to providing goods, services, and opportunities to the underprivileged, including everything from crisis intervention to long-term programming that lifts families out of poverty, while providing avenues for the rest of the community to become involved in helping families in need. Currently, One Voice is helping the families and workers affected by the Los Angeles fires (onevoice-la.org). His stop in LA on February 20^th will be at Lodge Room (lodgeroomhlp.com), and on February 22^nd he will be at the Revolution Stage Company (revolutionstagecompany.com) in Palm Springs.

In addition to his touring show, Revry’s King of Drag, and other film projects, Murray will release his memoir Showbiz! My Life As a Middle-Aged Man through Simon & Schuster. Even with a star on the rise, he remains humble and down to earth. The loud suits, jokes, and big band numbers are not an act, they are elements of who Murray really is. How is Murray the person different than Murray the persona?

As long as I’ve been in show business, I’ve been in therapy. I don’t think all my show business gigs have covered the cost of my therapy, but that’s another story. Murray is the manifestation of survival on an unwavering mission to represent the good and the compassion and empathy for everyone, and to represent the queer community. I feel like I’m old school, looking out for everyone and I think personally, I am the survivor. I know it’s a very subtle difference, but it’s like me, the person, had to go through all the shit from my own family, my own community, starting from day three up until two days ago with someone telling me I need to go to a mental hospital and find Jesus and go on Lithium. I take all that in and I survive that because I choose to use it in a positive way. We all have friends who are beaten down, suffer from depression, and who may have suicidal thoughts and are scared. I have all those things too, but I’ve managed to get through it and use it. Murray is my reward for survival. I got through my own life, I’m still standing, and now people can see my energy and my openness, and my desire for equal rights and anything I do. And now I get to do it on TV, people can pick that up. I go to Palm Springs where people can pick that up. So, Murray’s the reward for the struggle.

And Murray’s message to his fans?

Keep your chins up. My live shows are about being a fun, respite, safe place for people to laugh and to be who they are. No one’s going to get trolled or anything. And what I would say to people is to lean into these experiences and your community. In LA, you see everything that’s happening with the fires. But what is happening there is the community and people are taking care of each other. That’s beautiful. And that’s how we’re going to get through all this. So, what I would tell people is to lean towards the love, be present in your community, limit that social media, come to the show, and we’re going to be all right.

Follow Murray Hill on IG: @MurrayHill

The post Murray Hill is Leaning Into Love appeared first on Metrosource.

Modernism Week: It’s A Vibe! 1 Feb 2025, 4:47 pm

If you were a child of the 70s in Southern California, you will remember the anointed “Plumber to the Stars” – Jack Stephan – “Plumbing and heating problems? Your man is Jack Stephanski… Jack Stephanovich… Jack Stephanino… no It’s STEPHAN, JACK STEPHAN!”

Jack Stephan founded Jack Stephan Plumbing & Heating in 1946 and Adee Plumbing & Heating in 1949 and began advertising on television in 1965. “ADEE-DO!” The pop culture campy commercials certainly stuck in the minds and hearts of a generation, as Jack Stephan became a household name.

Fast forward to Palm Springs 1969, where Stephan bought and completely remodeled the now iconic Deepwell home, which he dubbed “Stephan’s Folly,” and lived until 2014. Stephan realized his One Thousand and One Nights–inspired fantasy, with the help of friends in the design and furniture industry. The comprehensive adornment of all surfaces speaks to the entrepreneur’s desire to stand out. “In keeping with his attention-grabbing advertising style,” the Los Angeles Times reported in his 2014 obituary, “Stephan drove Rolls-Royces and maintained a flashy wardrobe, including mega-carat diamonds and suits in his favorite color, red.”

This grand 3,250 square foot estate style home is a showcase of design and Palm Springs style. A fanciful blend of custom textures, patterns, and vibrant colors. From the many different types of crushed velvet wallpaper in fuchsia, pinks and oranges, to the deep shag carpeting, to the avocado green tiled sunken tubs, and the yellow appliance accented kitchen living room… the property holds a bold, flamboyant charm that you cannot help but love.  Cozy, unique, and only in Palm Springs.

The property, designed by architect Robert Lewis and constructed in 1965, is rich in local history and celebrity stories. Every corner of this flamboyant residence tells a story of high-roller charm with former party attendees and neighbors such as Eva Gabor, Hugh Hefner, William Holden, Elizabeth Taylor, and Liberace. One can imagine celebrities gathering around the retro-chic curved bar for a martini and cozied-up on the plush L-shaped sofa in front the massive fireplace for a round of Backgammon.

Everything in this incredible home has been painstakingly maintained and preserved as it was originally conceived in 1969. The property has had a few different owners since Stephan’s passing in 2014. The current owners, Kristy and Scott Parent, had been searching for a home in Palm Springs for a couple of years, and once entering Stephan’s Folly, they instantly fell in love with its unique history and charm. “While this wasn’t what we were initially searching for, we appreciated it the minute we first saw it, and knew we needed to continue the story,” says Kristy. “We felt a distinctive ‘vibe’ with this home, and so we renamed it ‘The Vibe’,” says Scott.

With its solid history and new name, The Vibe is participating in Modernism Week for the FIRST TIME, so you’ll get to tour and party at one of the coolest properties in the desert on February 20^th from 6 to 8:30pm. You’ll enjoy full bar service featuring custom cocktail creations, tray-passed hors d’oeuvres, groovy music, go-go girls, and disco balls! Dress to impress at this one of kind event. For tickets, visit go.modtix.com/f/2025/vibe-house.

And if you can’t make the Modernism Week party – I have even better news – you can now STAY in this groovy house through Natural Retreats at www.naturalretreats.com/property-detail-page?name=the-vibe-7349.  The Natural Retreats collection of luxury vacation homes offers travelers a distinguished selection of properties in iconic destinations across the United State —from the granite peaks of the Rockies to the desert oasis of Palm Springs to the epic views of Big Sky to the luminous waters of the Emerald Coast. You can visit them at www.naturalretreats.com/destinations/palm-springs.

It’s Cocktail Time!

For the 60s party at The Vibe house, visit go.modtix.com/f/2025/vibe-house and follow The Vibe on Instagram @thevibepalmsprings.

Modernism Week (February 13-23, 2025) is now celebrating 20 years of celebrating appreciation of midcentury architecture and design, as well as contemporary thinking in these fields, by encouraging education, preservation and sustainable modern living as represented in the greater Palm Springs area. The annual 11-day festival will feature more than 350 tours, programs and events, with a portion of ticket proceeds benefiting Modernism Week (a non-profit organization) and other local preservation, neighborhood, and community groups. The first Modernism Week event in February 2006, showcased the world-renowned midcentury modern architecture of Palm Springs. Among the members of the initial steering committee were representatives from the Modernism Show & Sale, Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, the Palm Springs Modern Committee, the Palm Springs Historical Society, and Palm Springs Art Museum. Today, more than 60 other non-profit organizations, businesses and neighborhood groups collaborate with Modernism Week to help produce Modernism Week tours and events.

For all 2025 tours, presentations, events, and experiences, visit modernismweek.com.

Photos: Ethylina Canne, Kristy Parent, Scott Parent

Location: The Vibe House, Palm Springs, CA (IG @thevibepalmsprings)

Photographer: Ernie Westman exclusively for Metrosource   

The post Modernism Week: It’s A Vibe! appeared first on Metrosource.

For this Hollywood Personality it’s Time for a Fresh Start After Breakups, Fires, and Tears 1 Feb 2025, 4:32 pm

The New Year started off with the world witnessing headlines about the fires in Los Angeles that have decimated over 50,000 acres and killed at least 27 people, becoming one of the worst natural disasters in the state’s history. And, at the exact moment of this writing, the Hughes Fire broke out consuming over 9,200 acres in just a matter of hours. It is one thing to read the headlines, it is another thing entirely to be a direct victim of this tragedy, losing everything in a place you called home. Max Emerson, YouTuber, actor, author, director, and LGBTQ personality, received the news that the home that he and his fiancé Andrés restored and meant to grow their family in was burning to the ground. Max would lose more than just the house and its belongings, not even having been given the opportunity to evacuate properly. But surprisingly, he is moving forward and focusing on the future rather than his losses.

I experienced it entirely online. I still haven’t seen the house. I just got back to LA last night. I was flying from Switzerland to Utah for a job, and Andrés was coming up from Chile to meet me there. I had heard about the fires when leaving Switzerland, and by the time I was in Utah, the house was long gone. After that, it was just about picking up the pieces and putting things together. We had some neighbors that stayed behind and they managed to get footage of the house burning down. That gives me a huge sense of closure. I don’t think everybody has the experience of watching their house in full inferno mode. For me, there’s something at work here with all of that. The most tragic part about our house burning down is that Andrés quit his job to become a visual artist and had four years’ worth of paintings in a closet downstairs. I could cry right now just thinking about it. He had just booked his first solo show, an international show in Chile, and was literally on the way back to the States to pick up the art to go to the show. Fortunately, he was able to photograph a lot of that stuff. I’m sure on some weird, deep, cosmic level, it is a lesson in permanence, but this is the part of that lesson that just sucks. And that’s just what it is.

Max posted footage of his house burning down on Instagram. It is devastating. Mere days after the couple posted a moving video sharing that they were safe and stable, Max and Andrés made a loving statement, sharing that after nine years, they were separating. As they put it, they “still love each other fully, deeply, and unconditionally. That love doesn’t end; it evolves.” The media went crazy sharing headlines of their breakup. Max has continued to post to his over 1 million followers on social media, showing that he is returning to some semblance of normality. Single and without a home.

I’ve always just posted compulsively to social media. Even though social media has put a lot of pressure on my relationship, which is now on pause, I know that there are a lot of people invested and connected, and there are people who care about us, and me, who want to know that we’re okay. The fact of the matter is, we are okay. For me at least, there’s no point in sharing this big sad, sob story. Our house burned down. It’s sad, it sucks, but it is just stuff at the end of the day.

Max didn’t have time to grieve. Work and the need to focus on the future of his solo career brought him to a branded two-week influencer stint in the heart of the Colorado mountains. Even while focusing on continuing to work, he is trying to give himself some grace to focus on his mental health.

That was not a response to my house burning down. Those were just jobs and things that I already had confirmed, and I could not think of a better place to be. As much as I wanted to be here for and with my community and help, I felt like I would just be in the way. I’m just one more displaced person to jack up the real estate market. I’m from Florida and have a lot of experience with hurricanes, but fires are really, really scary to me. I very much feel like I’m on the other side of the grief in a lot of ways. Of course, it comes in waves and is not linear, but for about the first week, I just had to budget an hour and a half a day to not be okay. And if I thought I was going to get away with it one day and be like, “Oh, I didn’t cry today!” No, it’d catch me. My body’s nice to me though, it gets it out of the way at times when it’s not inconvenient or embarrassing. Like I’ll just randomly wake up at three in the morning and start crying, and then I’m good. I feel like the endorphins from the crying kick in, and I look at all the love and opportunities that are just being hurled at me and then it’s all right. That being said, my social battery is about 50% of what it normally is.

Max has become a highlighted name in the queer community. His film projects like DipSpit, Earwig, and Hooked solidified his work as an actor, producer, writer, and director. His autobiography, Hot Sissy – Life Before Flashbulbs, detailed his “redneck” teenage years growing up in Florida and was well received. On YouTube, he has become extremely popular for his diverse collection of videos that include unfiltered thoughts on life, thirst traps, and his ongoing series Stuff Every Queer Kid Should Know. On social media, he continues to gain followers because of his appreciation and promotion of the LGBTQ community and, let’s be honest, his shirtless and underwear pics. His relationship ended up being a big part of his social media. The two announced their relationship, would film content together, announced their engagement, talked about going through the adoption process, and posted their breakup on social media. Does Max have any regrets about sharing so much about his relationship with the public?

Absolutely not. There’s nothing about my relationship that I regret. Part of the issue with what was happening is that I became the spokesperson for the entity that is us. And that’s not fair to him. That’s too much responsibility for me and it was just causing problems. Right now, everything that’s happening to us is a sign that it’s time for a break. We had a failed adoption that failed for a reason. Our house literally burned to the ground. That happened for a reason. We’ve had a lot of communication issues in the last few months, and we’ve decided to just take some time apart. So having something like this, simplified things for us so we can just make a full, clean break early while we still like each other. That is huge.

There is a level of grief and maybe even embarrassment to admit online that your very public relationship isn’t working out. But I think it’s also just a part of relationships. Not everyone wants to be around each other all the time. We have huge opportunities coming up for both of us, but they’re literally on different continents. I think the lesson for us right now, as a relationship, is to find ways to care about each other and love each other without the same sort of attachment that we were putting on ourselves, that we were having put on us by a bunch of strangers randomly weighing in on our relationship. After nine years, I think it’s time to reestablish ourselves as individuals because as fun as it is, doing happy couple content, there’s nothing more miserable than doing happy couple content when you’re fighting. It feels so inauthentic. When there’s just all these great offers and jobs and opportunities for us to go be a happy couple, we’re going to take them because it’s fun. But then that takes up the real estate and opportunity for me to be an actual filmmaker and for Andrés to be a visual artist. It’s everything in the universe that’s telling us to go be individuals and develop the lives and careers that we want independent of each other. It’s not to say that this may not work out in the future, but just definitely not right now.

Social media, especially in the queer community, can be smoke and mirrors with content creators always putting their best foot forward. With Max losing his house, the reality of his relationship being public news, and now having to start fresh, does he feel less pressure to present the glossy version of his life?

I am first and foremost a cheugy millennial. My job through college was a model during the toxic Abercrombie era. My first impulse is usually to make it look good before I put it out there. But I feel like that’s in anything I do, I always want something to be aesthetically pleasing, whether it’s how I’ve designed and laid out my home, or if I’m going to plate a dinner. I like things to have an aesthetic balance to them. But I actually don’t think that I was super successful with social media until I started learning how to be vulnerable.

My first large crowdsource project was for a film I wrote, a narrative about homeless youth called Hooked. It was a reaction to all the predatory behavior I’d been experiencing from people within our own community. One of the big arcs of that fundraising is that I had a whole fake relationship with Kyle Krieger. We fake dated for a month and we fake broke up. It’s all very meta and it’s all happening again. But through the course of that month of fundraising, I had these celebrity cameos that functioned as mentors, helping me channel that vulnerability and authenticity and acknowledgment that not everything is awesome all of the time. So again, I think when it comes to regret and sharing your relationship on social media, yes, people need role models, as pretentious as that sounds, for how to go on vacation with your partner and not just fight in the hotel room the whole time. Yes, there needs to be examples of ways to celebrate your love and do it in a healthy capacity, but there also needs to be role models on how to break up and how to still care about each other. It’s not my first choice of a storyline, but that’s the truth right now.

Max is moving forward and taking his followers with him for the ride, bumps and all. He has some big international projects happening and hinted at a major project he can’t talk about right now. Even with everything he has gone through in less than a month, he is oddly optimistic and does consider the fires a type of personal cleansing. That is not to say there is no grief. Many people, and many from the queer community, have lost everything in the Los Angeles fires. Some are moving to different states, some are staying and trying to rebuild their lives, and many are displaced with no actionable plan in sight. From his own dealing with grief, Max offers his advice.

I think my arc with grief has been to not just plow through, but actually let yourself feel the feelings and allow yourself to not be okay. Don’t run from those feelings. Feel them because you’re going to feel them whether you want to or not. And the harder you fight it, the more it’s going to hurt. So do that, feel those feelings, but then when you’re done, get to work, get off your ass, and keep going.

You can follow Max on IG: @Maxisms

The post For this Hollywood Personality it’s Time for a Fresh Start After Breakups, Fires, and Tears appeared first on Metrosource.

This Drag Race Star is Lazy! 1 Feb 2025, 4:13 pm

She’s a singer, she’s a dancer, she’s a podcaster, she’s a drag queen, and she’s a winner, baby. From the land that gave us the outlandish drag styles of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, hailing from Upwey, a suburb of Melbourne, comes the winner of Drag Race Down Under season 4, Lazy Susan. Lazy Susan is anything but lazy. She’s a consummate entertainer whose hustle has clearly paid off. Her distinct sense of humor and zany drag aesthetic instantly set her apart in the industry. With her colorful childhood beginnings, her drag journey was destined.

I grew up in a house that was very theatrical, very camp. My dad is like the gayest straight man that ever existed. My mom was a big old dag (eccentric) and a massive theatre nerd. And then my sister is an improv comedy sort of gal. So, there was really no chance of not having at least a little bit of a sense of humor coming out of that environment.

This colorful environment paved the way for Lazy Susan to come into her own when realized she might not be like the other boys.

I was lucky enough to go to a very kind of progressive hippie school up in the Sherbrooke Forest. It was like Montessori – that style of school – but the cheap home brand version. So I was out at around 13. There were a lot of gays at my school. We were all quoting Will & Grace mercilessly at each other. I was always like the other boys at my school because we were all massive flaming homosexuals and it was a great place to be out.

Despite her young age, Lazy Susan’s early drag influences come from classic sources.

My first kind of drag exposure was the childhood ones, Some Like It Hot, Mrs. Doubtfire, and Tootsie. But the most significant early drag influence for me was the film Torch Song Trilogy with Harvey Fierstein, which is still to this day my favorite film. That has influenced so much of my outlook and everything that I take into drag. If you haven’t seen that film, seek it out because it’s amazing. Anne Bancroft, Harvey Feirstein, need I say more?

Film in general has always been part of Lazy Susan’s life. From childhood to earning a BFA from film school, she has found her inspiration from cinematic personalities like Pedro Almodóvar, John Waters, and Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness), anyone who, according to her, is a twisted homosexual. These kinds of films have created Lazy Susan’s style. How to describe Lazy Susan’s looks? It’s hard to put down in words.

I like to dress like a woman who has just done a 12-hour shift at like a tall window, like that’s my dream aesthetic. I love uniforms and polyester suits and name tags. There usually has to be some element of dank in the drag.

As a citizen of Australia and the United States, she actually auditioned for Drag Race for both iterations. One of her audition tapes featured her parents. What was the winning factor for her last audition tape that got her cast for Down Under season 4? She simply puts it – “Desperation.”

Watching herself go through her season was eye-opening. What did she learn the most about herself?

Watching the show back, the thing I learned, and the thing that I think every Drag Race girly learns, is what you actually look like. It’s a traumatizing experience. So, I learned just to make my makeup bigger. How about that?

Now with so many iterations of Drag Race, there are a number of winners in the industry. How is Lazy Susan going to use her crown, what kind of legacy does she want to create?

I think the key to a good reign is bloodshed, like the most bloodshed. Going on the show is not about getting everyone to like you, it’s about finding the people that you are in sync with and then taking them off back to your weird little corner of the drag world. I’m eager to just find as many of the people that are into the sort of things that I’m into and then make content and ideas and things for them. That’s the thing about having so many winners now, not all of them need to be everything to every person. We now have a winner for every different type of queer out there. I hope to find sweaty, dank homosexuals to entertain.

Lazy Susan is the first queen to be crowned by Michelle Visage, who took the reigns over from RuPaul this season. For Lazy Susan, Visage’s presence wasn’t just about hosting a show, it was about adding that mother energy to the show. The two also bonded over the loss of their mothers, adding a bit of glitter to grief.

She’s incredible. It’s amazing watching the season back and the meticulous care that she has for the contestants. She’s adaptive, she didn’t just do a one-size-fits-all all. She got to know our personalities and started to know how to receive us and what sort of advice and ideas to give to us. Like I think the way that both me and Max (another season 4 contestant) had conversations about the passing of our mothers was very different because Max and I have different feelings. I’m a real staunch atheist. When people say, “I think your mom’s looking down on you from heaven.” I’m like, “No, she’s not. She’s in a box in my sister’s living room.” Michelle even adapted that kind of conversation with me when I was in that sit down with her in the final episode, we were talking about the moms. “Yeah, my mom died,” and she says, “How about two mothers dying?” because obviously Michelle has lost both her biological and adoptive mother. That is specific, that is her being irreverent with a girl who talks in that kind of way and then offering a really different kind of softer care to someone who’s in a much more fragile state and has more of a feeling about God and heaven and those sorts of things. I really appreciated that in her.

Torch Song Trilogy was not just an early inspirational film for Lazy Susan but also was a source of comfort in working through her grief of losing her mother.

Going back to Torch Song Trilogy, there’s this great line in that film that definitely provided me a lot of solace, it is when Anne Bancroft talks about losing her husband and she says, “Uh, grief is like wearing a new pair of glasses. At first, it’s all you can think about, and it feels like it’s changed your entire life. And it’s not that it ever goes away, it’s just that you get used to it and it becomes part of your everyday life.” That’s how I think about grief. I feel it and live through it. You can’t try and obfuscate grief. It will come for you no matter what. You really have to live in it.

Dealing with death has also been tongue-in-cheek for Lazy Susan. Her popular podcast is called Death to Everyone and is an outlandish look at pop culture and the Apocalypse. Would you expect anything tamer from the eccentric mind of this title-winning queen?

The podcast is about two celestial goddesses, two drag icons, Zelda Moon and Lazy Susan, deciding what we’re going to put in our doomsday bunker from human culture. For example, which Spice Girl, which road sign, which drink, which thing from 7-11? So they all like going to the bunker while the rest goes into the apocalyptic wasteland. Living in the times that we’re living in, it’s kind of impossible not to think that we’re constantly on the brink of annihilation. So, we wanted to do something that at least made a bit of a joke out of it and had a bit of fun. We also just wanted a way to talk shit about everything that we could think about.

What would Lazy Susan exile from her bunker for 2025?

Mr. Beast is, unfortunately, going to be fraying in the apocalyptic wasteland unless he does something really camp soon. We just left Monster Energy drink; they’re going out in the cold in favor of Red Bull. Red Bull is making it into the doomsday bunker because it’s much chicer and fem coated. So yeah, these are the kinds of important questions that we do tackle. Which puppet gets into the bunker is so important because how do we memorialize puppets at the end of days?

Barreling into 2025 with a Drag Race crown, Lazy Susan does not want to slow down and has her sights on a feature film for this year. And her poignant message to her fans?

Bow to my reign or expect death. It will be swift. [Laughs]

Follow Lazy Susan on IG: @MsLazySusan

Death to Everyone is available wherever you listen to your podcasts

All episodes of Drag Race Down Under Season 4 are now available on WOW Presents Plus.

[All photos courtesy WOW Presents Plus]

The post This Drag Race Star is Lazy! appeared first on Metrosource.

Is Rehab Really the End of the Road? Nah, It’s the Start of Something Bigger 14 Dec 2024, 2:03 am

Struggling with addiction can feel like you’re caught in a storm with no clear direction. It’s isolating and exhausting, especially when it seems like the world around you keeps moving while you’re stuck. But here’s the thing: hitting the brakes and asking for help isn’t the end of the line—it’s actually the moment you start rewriting your story. For LGBTQ folks, the path to recovery often comes with added layers of complexity. Whether it’s dealing with societal pressures, family dynamics, or identity struggles, finding a space where you can be your authentic self while healing is everything.

Rehab can feel intimidating, no doubt. But what if we flipped the script? What if it’s not just about quitting substances but about rediscovering your power? Let’s unpack how rehab can be an LGBTQ-safe space to grow, heal, and thrive—and why you deserve every chance to take back control of your life.

What Does Rehab Really Look Like?

Forget the outdated stereotypes. Rehab isn’t about sitting in a circle, sharing clichés, or being judged. It’s a space where you can get honest about what’s been holding you down and figure out what’ll lift you up. For LGBTQ folks, a good program doesn’t just acknowledge your identity—it celebrates it.

We’re talking about places that honor your pronouns, create safe spaces for open conversations, and connect you with counselors who actually get it. You’re not just another file or statistic; you’re a whole person, and your identity deserves respect. The beauty of rehab lies in its ability to strip away the noise and help you see what’s really going on inside.

You’ll meet people from all walks of life, each with their own stories and struggles. Rehab isn’t about perfection—it’s about progress. No one expects you to have it all figured out, and the process can actually feel freeing. You’re allowed to mess up, cry, laugh, and start over as many times as you need.

Healing Isn’t Just Physical, It’s About the Soul, Too

Getting clean isn’t just about breaking physical dependency; it’s about healing your entire self. Addiction doesn’t happen in a vacuum, and unpacking the emotional and spiritual layers can be game-changing. For many in the LGBTQ community, the idea of exploring spirituality in rehab might sound a little daunting—maybe even a little uncomfortable.

But here’s the twist: spirituality doesn’t have to mean religion. It’s about connecting to something bigger than yourself, whether that’s through mindfulness, nature, art, or just finding meaning in the little things. If you’ve ever felt disconnected from yourself or your community, rehab can help rebuild those bridges.

Imagine this: quiet moments of meditation, journaling out all the messy feelings, or just finding people who understand what you’re going through without judgment. It’s less about what you believe in and more about learning to believe in yourself again. The magic happens when you realize you’re not alone, and that sense of connection is what starts to heal the deeper wounds.

Can You Get Fired for Going to Rehab? Let’s Clear That Up

The fear of losing your job is a huge reason people hesitate to get help. If you’ve been wondering, “can you get fired for going to rehab?” The short answer is: probably not. In most cases, going to a recovery program for help shouldn’t be a reason to be fired.

Here’s why: employment laws in many states protect workers who take time off for medical reasons, and that includes addiction treatment. A lot of workplaces also have Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) designed to support employees dealing with substance use. Your job might even have policies in place to encourage you to get the help you need.

But—and this is a big but—you’ve got to know your rights. Some industries and contracts have specific rules, so understanding the fine print is key. If you’re nervous about how to bring this up at work, you’re not alone. Many people find that being upfront (while protecting their privacy) works out better than expected. A good employer will value your health over short-term productivity because, let’s face it, no one thrives when they’re struggling.

Getting help isn’t a weakness; it’s strength. And if your workplace doesn’t see it that way, that’s on them—not you. Knowing the law and advocating for yourself are powerful steps toward making recovery a priority without unnecessary stress.

Building Your People

If rehab teaches you one thing, it’s that you don’t have to do this alone. Addiction thrives in isolation, and one of the best things about recovery is finding people who just get it. For LGBTQ folks, that sense of connection can feel even more profound.

Whether it’s a chosen family, a support group, or even one solid friend, having someone in your corner makes all the difference. Rehab often connects you with peers who are also working through their own battles, creating a space where vulnerability feels safe. You’re not competing, comparing, or trying to outdo anyone—you’re just healing alongside them.

In the LGBTQ community, there’s a unique strength in shared experiences. Whether it’s trading stories about coming out, navigating relationships, or overcoming societal stigma, these bonds remind you that you’re not fighting alone. And the best part? These connections often last long after rehab ends.

Taking It One Day at a Time

Recovery isn’t about hitting a finish line; it’s about finding your footing and learning to walk steady again. It’s about waking up each day and deciding, “Today, I’m choosing me.” Some days will be easier than others, and that’s okay. The journey isn’t linear, but every step forward counts.

For LGBTQ folks, recovery can feel like reclaiming all the parts of yourself that got lost along the way. It’s about celebrating your wins, no matter how small, and knowing that your identity and recovery can coexist beautifully. Rehab isn’t the end of the story; it’s the prologue to a life you’re finally in control of.

Your Story Deserves a Happy Ending

Addiction doesn’t define you. It’s just one chapter in a story that’s far from over. Taking the step to go to rehab isn’t about admitting defeat—it’s about choosing hope. It’s about recognizing that you’re worth saving, no matter how far you think you’ve fallen.

In a world that sometimes feels like it’s constantly trying to dim your light, choosing recovery is the ultimate act of rebellion. You’re saying, “I’m still here, and I’m not giving up.” So, whether you’re just starting to think about rehab or you’re already on the path, remember: you’ve got this. And there’s a whole community cheering you on.

The post Is Rehab Really the End of the Road? Nah, It’s the Start of Something Bigger appeared first on Metrosource.

Pamper Your Skin this Holiday Season with the TOP Products for Men 11 Dec 2024, 11:43 pm

The holidays are upon us, with festive gatherings, snowy days, and the joyful hustle and bustle. Why not add some new sparkles to your grooming routine this season? From screen-induced skin fatigue to winter dryness, these carefully curated grooming kits, gift sets, and self-care essentials have got you covered. Whether you’re seeking a new skincare ritual, treating yourself to a scented experience, or simply looking for stocking stuffers, this guide will help you find the ideal products to celebrate the season in style.

ATWATER

Hydration Station

atwaterskin.com

$49

Need a little extra holiday hydration after a day in the cold? Chris Salgardo, the former President of Kiehl’s, is back with his new venture, ATWATER—a skincare line named after his dad’s hometown in Atwater, CA. Designed to keep things simple, ATWATER helps guys look fresh and confident without all the fuss. Get holiday-ready with their Heavy Armor Dry Skin Essentials kit, featuring a Cleansing Bar, Eye Armor Moisturizer, and Heavy Armor Moisturizer. Perfect for keeping your skin smooth and hydrated during those holiday photos and parties. As Salgardo puts it, “I need a routine that tackles sweat and oil without stripping my skin.” Stay shine-free and ready to rock the festivities!

BEAU DOMAINE

Brad’s Complete Routine

us.beau-domaine.com 

$396

Beau Domaine’s Brad’s Complete Routine, a collaboration between Brad Pitt and the Perrin family, offers a luxurious men’s skincare ritual inspired by Provence. This three-step routine starts with the Cleansing Emulsion, followed by The Serum—applied with smoothing, upward motions for absorption. Complete the ritual with either The Cream for normal to dry skin or the Fluid Cream for normal to combination skin. Packaged in eco-friendly bottles made from recycled glass and wine barrels, this routine features patented GSM10® and ProGR3® ingredients to combat aging. Perfect for a luxury escape to Provence—pair it with a bottle of Miraval Rosé for holiday indulgence.

BLUEME
4 Piece Ceramic Votive Set
fablerune.com
$75

The Blueme 4-Piece Ceramic Votive Set offers a serene journey through scent with four signature candles: Calm, Balance, Nostalgia, and Focus. Each handcrafted ceramic votive contains a soy-wax blend, designed with layered notes like green tea, lotus flower, sandalwood, bergamot, and eucalyptus. Infused with science-based formulas, these fragrances aim to promote relaxation, clarity, and emotional balance. Blueme, founded by Mei Xu, focuses on creating functional fragrances that connect well-being with scent. The brand combines luxurious aromas with minimalist design and a commitment to quality, offering thoughtful products that enhance both mood and home. Go ahead, treat yourself to a winter wonderland atmosphere with calming scents after a busy day of holiday prep.

CELLCOSMET

The Massage Ritual Collection

cellcosmet.com

$785

Cellcosmet, a Swiss brand, was inspired by the pioneering work of Professor Paul Niehans in cellular therapy. They’ve built on decades of research to develop the CellControl method, preserving the efficacy of bioengineered cellular extracts. The brand’s commitment to science-backed, luxury skincare is evident through their exacting standards and the work of their experts, including Dr. Jérémie Soeur, a leader in skincare science and innovation.

The Massage Ritual Collection is a luxury skincare set that launched in November 2024, designed to create a spa-like experience at home. It features the brand’s best selling Activator Gel, Ultra Intensive Elasto Collagen-XT for firming and toning, a rich Ultra Vital cream for hydration and radiance, and a Cellular Eye Contour Cream to reduce fine lines. The set includes Cryo-stick massage tools, which provide a cooling sensation to enhance circulation and refresh the skin.

CLARINS

ClarinsMen Grooming Essentials Gift Set
clarinsusa.com

$75

The ClarinsMen Grooming Essentials Gift Set ($75) from Clarins is a limited-edition, 6-piece holiday collection perfect for men’s daily grooming needs. The set includes essentials for face, body, beard, and hair, all in an eco-friendly ClarinsMen pouch. Inside, you’ll find the Super Moisture Balm, which provides intensive hydration to help skin recover from extreme sports, cold weather, and rough shaves. The Active Face Wash, a gentle foaming gel, cleanses, softens, and refreshes the skin. For a full-body cleanse, the 2-in-1 Shampoo and Shower Gel invigorates from head to toe. The Shave and Beard Oil conditions the skin and beard, making for easy razor glide and effortless styling. Also included is the award-winning Double Serum Light, formulated with 21 plant extracts to address visible signs of aging in a lightweight texture ideal for oily skin and humid climates.

ROSSI DERM

Skin Refine

rossiderm.com

$258

Dr. Rossi Derm’s Skin Refine Duo, priced at $258, combines the transformative powers of The Night Synthesis and The Catalyst to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles while calming skin irritation. Both formulas are infused with Dr. Rossi’s proprietary Bio-Theriac® complex, known for its clinically proven efficacy. The Night Synthesis is a rich night cream that promotes cellular repair while locking in moisture, making it ideal for all skin types. The Catalyst, a silky daily serum, works to even skin tone and boost firmness while addressing multiple skin concerns in one formula. Dr. Rossi, a pioneer in sensitive skincare, created these luxurious treatments after noticing that traditional products often aggravated his patients’ conditions. His mission is to provide effective, non-irritating solutions for all skin types, helping individuals achieve their healthiest skin without the use of harmful ingredients. Packaged in a fully recyclable luxury box, this duo not only supports skin health but also aligns with eco-friendly values.

FABLERUNE

The Queen Healer Intuitive Spa box

fablerune.com

$164

The Queen Healer Intuitive Spa Box by FABLERUNE is a curated collection of luxurious, ritual-inspired products designed to bring inner peace and mindfulness. Packaged in a reusable wooden box, it includes a Ritual Essential Oil Candle, Seasonal Bath Soak, Rose Clay Facial Cleanser, Probiotic Marine Mask, and more, all paired with a booklet offering guided meditation and treatment flow. FABLERUNE’s brand draws on ancestral healing and traditions, using time-honored ingredients to support women’s evolving skincare needs. Founded by Jeriel in Oakland, CA, with co-owner Bobbie, FABLERUNE blends fables and runes to create a nourishing, holistic self-care experience focused on sustainability and wellness.

Bright & Bouncy Bestseller Serum Kit

herbivorebotanicals.com

$24

Herbivore’s Bright & Bouncy Bestseller Serum Kit offers a trio of effective, plant-based serums to boost radiance, soften lines, and deeply hydrate. The set includes the Cloud Jelly Hydration Serum with moisture-locking mushrooms, NOVA Brightening Serum with turmeric and vitamin C, and Moon Fruit, a gentle retinol alternative for smoothing wrinkles. Herbivore was founded in 2011 by Alex Kummerow and Julia Wills in Seattle, with a mission to create clean, plant-based skincare. Inspired by their backgrounds in herbal medicine and cosmetic chemistry, the duo crafted small-batch solutions that grew into a global brand known for effective, natural products designed for all skin types.

KIEHL’S

Open for Advent-Ure Gift Set

kiehls.com

$148

Kiehl’s Since 1851 celebrates the holidays with their 2024 Holiday Advent Calendar, featuring 24 iconic skincare products behind each door. Priced at $148 ($293 value), the set includes bestsellers like the Ultra Facial collection, Avocado Eye Cream, and Lip Balm #1. With festive designs by artist duo Public/Official, the calendar offers a daily skincare surprise, making it a perfect gift to give or keep. Kiehl’s, known for 171 years of effective, paraben-free skincare, continues its commitment to innovative formulas and sustainable packaging, honoring its apothecary roots in New York’s East Village.

KORRES

Spread Joy Advent Calendar 2024

korres.com

$225

The KORRES Spread Joy Advent Calendar 2024, priced at $225, brings the essence of Greek nature to the holiday season. Inspired by the rich biodiversity of Greece, this limited-edition calendar features 24 KORRES products packaged in beautifully designed boxes that come together to create four unique puzzles, each with its own story. The calendar’s aesthetic draws from apothecary traditions, and the design is symbolized by the iconic KORRES windmill, which spreads the secrets and scents of the Greek flora. The products are dermatologically tested, vegetarian-friendly, cruelty-free, and packaged in recyclable materials, reflecting KORRES’ commitment to ethical and sustainable practices. KORRES collaborates with local farmers, forming a network of over 10,000 people to source ingredients sustainably from Greece’s diverse landscapes, where over 6,000 plant species thrive. Founded in 1996 by pharmacist Georgios Korres, the brand honors traditional natural remedies while leveraging modern innovation to create high-quality skincare inspired by Greece’s rich botanical heritage.

LA CHATELAINE

Oprah’s Favorite Things 2019 Luxury Soap Collection

Lachatelainebeauty.com

$73

Oprah’s Favorite Things 2019 Luxury Soap Collection by La Chatelaine ($73) is a perfect gift, beautifully presented in a limited-edition Winter White tin with vibrant florals. Made in Provence with ethically sourced, natural ingredients, these triple-milled, vegetable-based soaps are enriched with shea butter, argan oil, and vitamin E for a luxurious, moisturizing lather. Scents include Gardenia, Coconut Milk, Lemon Verbena, Cherry Almond, Shea, and Wild Fig, crafted by perfumers in Grasse, France. La Chatelaine’s soaps are cruelty-free and free from colorants, parabens, and phthalates, offering a pure, indulgent experience.

PROHIBITION

The Massage Candle

prohibitionwellness.com

$57

Give the gift of warmth and relaxation this holiday season with The Massage Candle from Prohibition Wellness. This luxurious soy candle offers a comforting blend of wood sage and peony, filling any room with a cozy, inviting aroma. Once the wick is blown out, the candle’s rich mix of coconut and hemp seed oils melts into a warm, skin-softening massage oil. Ideal for solo self-care or sharing with a partner, it’s infused with essential nutrients to soothe and nourish the skin. Embrace the season of comfort and connection with a touch of luxury from Prohibition Wellness.

RAW SUGAR

RawStrength

rawsugarliving.com

$10

RawStrength by Raw Sugar offers a fresh, eco-friendly take on men’s grooming. This $9.99 set includes two invigorating body washes—Eucalyptus and Black Coconut—along with Strength and Invigorate 2-in-1 Shampoo & Conditioners. Raw Sugar believes in celebrating authenticity, self-care, and clean living. With a mission to inspire love from the outside in, they use organic extracts, follow strict EU fragrance guidelines, and stick to a cruelty-free, no-harm philosophy. Their signature packaging is made with 30% recycled plastic, aiming for 100% by 2030. RawStrength keeps things simple and refreshing, while staying kind to the planet.

RITUALS

Premium Advent Calendar

rituals.com

$227

Rituals’ Premium Advent Calendar offers a delightful countdown to the holiday season with 24 luxurious surprises tucked inside its festive design. This year, the calendar features an enchanting Dutch heritage-inspired village, complete with miniature houses illuminated by string lights, creating a magical atmosphere for the season. Each window reveals a gift, including seven full-sized exclusive products, four Advent candles, and iconic bestsellers for body and home. Highlights include the Amsterdam Collection Body Mist, The Ritual of Mehr Body Cream, and Precious Amber Hand Wash. With a focus on cherishing meaningful moments amidst holiday festivities, this Premium Advent Calendar is not just a treat for the senses but a perfect way to embrace the spirit of giving and self-care throughout December.

SNOW FOX

Ceramide & EGF Treatment Orb

snowfoxskincare.com

$48

The Ceramide & EGF Treatment Orb by Snow Fox Skincare is a potent solution designed to instantly hydrate, firm, and rejuvenate dry or stressed skin. Featuring a blend of five ceramides and vegan Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF), this innovative orb delivers over 12 active ingredients in a freeze-dried form, ensuring maximum purity and effectiveness. Ideal for post-laser treatments or sensitive, flaky skin, it enhances the effects of Snow Fox serums, promoting skin barrier recovery and long-lasting hydration. Founded by Phoebe Song, Snow Fox Skincare focuses on clean, natural ingredients, driven by her personal journey with inflammatory rosacea. The brand’s mission is to create effective, mindful beauty solutions for all skin types.

VOESH

Limited Edition Peppermint Swirl Duo

voesh.com

$20

The VOESH Limited Edition Peppermint Swirl Duo is a must-have for anyone looking to pamper their feet this holiday season. Priced at $20, this duo includes the Solemate Heel Repair Balm, enriched with vegan squalene and botanical oil blends to nourish and protect dry, cracked heels, and a pair of moisturizing heel socks featuring a silicone gel liner infused with jojoba and olive oils for extra hydration. Since 2013, VOESH has focused on creating transparent, safe, and effective spa products that prioritize health and wellness, serving over 100,000 spas worldwide with a commitment to environmentally friendly practices. Get ready to treat your mistle-toes to this luxurious self-care experience!

ZODICA

Mind Body Soul Gift Set

zodicaperfumery.com
$70

Delight the zodiac lover in your life with Zodica Perfumery’s Mind Body Soul Gift Set, a luxurious trio designed for each star sign. This set is a sensory journey that brings the essence of the cosmos into everyday self-care. Each kit includes a TSA-approved mini-perfume, a multi-use hair perfume serum that doubles as a dry body oil, and a nourishing lotion infused with organic aloe vera. Accompanied by an intention card to set the mood, it’s perfect for tossing into your travel bag or freshening up after yoga. Founded by Kristi Moe, an industry veteran, Zodica Perfumery is dedicated to sustainable, artisanal creations that celebrate individuality with celestial-inspired fine fragrances, crafted over three years with the world’s finest ingredients. Each scent reflects the emotion and season of its sign, with notes like Aries’ cinnamon, amber, and vanilla, or Pisces’ neroli, water lotus, and cucumber. Wear the scents by sign, season, or attraction, and release intention into your day with an accompanying poem for each fragrance. Handcrafted in the USA, cruelty-free, vegan, and gluten-free, this set combines the romance of the stars with eco-conscious luxury.

Here’s to a season filled with warmth, wellness, and a little extra self-care. Happy Holidays!

The post Pamper Your Skin this Holiday Season with the TOP Products for Men appeared first on Metrosource.

NYC’s Annual Holiday Train Show 11 Dec 2024, 10:53 pm

Ignite your inner child at the New York Botanical Garden’s annual Holiday Train show. Featuring floral replicas of the city’s most captivating structures and landmarks and imbued with the lively glow of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s signature beauty, this one-of-a-kind seasonal display is sure to ignite your imagination and wrap your visit in a wave of nostalgia. There are numerous ways to enjoy this magical rail-inspired celebration, by day with the fam, or at night as part of the 21+ nights (taking place December 7, 13, 14, 28; January 4, 11, & 18) complete with holiday cocktails savory hors devours and more to keep you cozy and warm during even the coldest of New York nights. All aboard at nybg.org.

New York Botanical Garden | Through January 20th

2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx, NY 10458

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Sandra Bernhard Brings New Show to East Village 11 Dec 2024, 10:49 pm

Blow off holiday steam with the one and only Sandra Bernhardt who’s bringing her esteemed ‘Shapes and Forms’ production to the East Village this a limited December run. This intimate, cabaret-style performance will have you laughing and singing along with the iconic television and film star as she shares true stories from her adventures across the globe. Naturally, Shapes & Forms is interwoven with the songs you’ve come to expect from Sandy – Lana, Stevie, Cat, Lionel, Burt and a million surprises,” she says. “Kick off your Manolo’s, shimmy out of your Dior and drop by.” You don’t have to twist our arms. Tickets are available for 7PM and 11PM installments for the night owls. These houses are sure to be full so grab your seats before they’re gone at publictheater.org.

December 26-31, 2024 | Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street (at Astor Place), New York

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Dom We Now Our Gay Apparel 11 Dec 2024, 10:46 pm

“Come celebrate a lecherous year with this treacherous queer,” says Dominick Pupa, cabaret star and co-host of the hilarious FixingFamousPeople podcast. In this edition, he’ll close out a jaw-clenching 2024 with his triumphant return to The Cutting Room. The beloved East Side haunt becomes the backdrop of another high-energy performance of Dom We Now Our Gay Apparel, his acclaimed one-man takedown of a truly ridiculous past 12 months. “It’s a pop culture roasting with holiday music parodies that will ruin the Christmas classics for you forever,” he promises. How presumptuous of you to assume those classics are still in our favor… challenge accepted, Dom. Tis the season to roast, so grab some tickets dommentary.com.

December 14, 2024 | The Cutting Room 44 E. 32^nd Street, New York

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International Comedy Festival ‘SF SKETCHFEST’ Returning to San Francisco 11 Dec 2024, 10:36 pm

This multi-day comedy festival will host over 180 shows, bringing major comedy stars and the best up-and-coming comedians together for over two weeks of sketch, stand-up, alternative comedy, music, improv, tributes, live podcasts and more. Now in its 22nd year, SF Sketchfest is an internationally recognized, eclectic, and critically acclaimed festival which features special programming, never-before-seen events, and the rare opportunity for audiences to see favorite performers in intimate live settings.

Some highlights include:

• Saturday Night Live alumn Ana Gasteyer joins The Groundlings 50th Anniversary Show which also includes Michael Hitchcock, Laraine Newman, Phil LaMarr, Oscar Nunez, Julia Sweeney and more; and Theme Park Improv alongside Kevin Pollak, Gary Anthony Williams, Rachel Dratch, and more.
• An Evening with “Mr. Throwback” features the creators, directors and stars of the hit show in a lively Q&A where all secrets will be divulged and all mysteries will be explained. With Adam Pally, Ayden Mayeri, David Caspe, Daniel Libman, Matthew Libman, David Wain, and more.
• Tim Curry (“The Rocky Horror Picture Show”) appearing in person for a very special tribute hosted by local drag legend Peaches Christ.
• Music and comedy with Bill Murray and His Blood Brothers band featuring Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia.
• 45th anniversary of the film “Airplane!” live read featuring co-creator David Zucker, original star Robert Hays and surprise guests
• Members of The State and The Kids in the Hall.
• Celebrity Autobiography with a cast including Pamela Adlon, Richard Kind, Ralph Macchio, Laraine Newman, Jennifer Tilly and Blair Underwood.
• Comedians Maria Bamford, Chris Fleming, Joel Kim Booster, Dulcé Sloan, Rhys Darby, Robby Hoffman, Punkie Johnson, Aparna Nancherla, The Sklar Brothers, Nore Davis, Josh Gondelman, Alison Leiby, Kate Willett, Hampton Yount, Nori Reed, Todd Barry, and Todd Glass, and many more!

Check out the SF Sketchfest 2025 lineup at sfsketchfest.com.

Various Venues | January 16 through February 2, 2025 | sfsketchfest.com

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