Living Proof

What makes a blog interesting? What lures you into a particular website on a daily basis? Is it their life, their writing style, their opinionated nature, advice, or perhaps just a morbid fascination with negative controversial topics that are begging for desperate attention? I’ve found quite a few bloggers who try to be another Perez Hilton, but just don’t make the cut. Most ‘attention begging’ blogs that I have seen hardly generate any traffic at all. Their Twitter accounts are less than 100 people and their fan pages that they sadly set up are still in the two digit phase. The unfortunate part is, they’re usually well written and you can obviously see that the blogger is intelligent for the most part. But here’s the drawback in my personal opinion: they have nothing positive to say about anything. It’s all about relentlessly bashing other people for the mere sake of possibly getting noticed. While it’s fun to read tabloid-like blogs, it’s also entertaining to see a positive spin, ...

W hat a spectacular season premier of The A-List NY - “housewives with balls”, as they call them, on LOGO. I’m hanging on the edge of my seat every single second. If you haven’t seen the show, it gives you an idea of the gay community in an upper class environment. These are all hard working boys (and now gal), and of course, they play hard as well. I have had the pleasure of working with Ryan Nickulas, celebrity hairdresser and owner of The Ryan Darius Salon in NYC. My wife also gets her hair done by Ryan. He is an absolute pleasure to be around. No aires, no ‘acts to put on’ -- all genuine realness is what we've experienced. This goes for his best friend, TJ Kelly as well. After the season premier, I scrolled down Twitter and other networking sites plus Google to see what people were saying about the show. I understand when people don’t particularly like a show, they may comment briefly and then let it go. But these boys are really getting hit hard by jealous and resentful gay m...

Have you ever watched a TV show where instantly, you either loved or hated a character? And throughout the entire season of watching the show, your ‘first impression’ of that person just sticks. And at times, people’s perceptions of others who are on TV goes even a bit further - assuming their 'real life' character is that way in real life too. My wife and I have had the pleasure of getting to know Ryan Nickulas from The A-List NY , on screen and off screen. His character on TV, in my opinion is how it is in real life: warm, caring, sensitive with a bit of sassiness. It's very consistent. My wife and I took more to Ryan and his husband Desmond, I guess because of their long-term relationship as well as dynamics. Last Friday, we were invited to interview Ryan in his home for our documentary. We were greeted by Desmond & their two adorable pugs at the door. We set up our equipment at the dining room table and waited for Ryan to come in. Before interviewing anyone, I alway...

While putting together part of my documentary and trying to organize all the pieces to the puzzle, I began to realize that I was missing an important segment of the film. I contacted the entertainer who was previously interviewed by us to ask if I had given her the wrong footage, and she said something that made sense - something I already knew - but all the more reason to move full steam ahead on this on my own. She said, “You do need a crew. Not only to help you channel your vision, but to help you fan the flames of your brilliance. I believe in you and know that the footage is somewhere!” Hours later I did find my footage, through the rubble of my madness, but her words kept taunting me a bit. I admit, it would be a helluva' lot easier working with a crew, but between the possible weakening of control and my shoestring budget, I doubt that’s going to happen anytime soon. On the other hand, if I found some creative minds to work with, perhaps people who are very much into film...

Back when I first started this blog, it was 80% worth of “religious” topics and more about defending my stance on Christianity and the various beliefs within that one religion. The other argument of course, was about homosexuality vs. religion. I spent a lot of time defending myself, writing in bold and trying to convince people “I was right” - when in actuality, no one is “right” about a belief. Belief is faith. Faith is something you believe blindly in, or in my case, and many others, they have witnessed a spiritual experience. Call it “all your head” type of stuff, but as real as it was to me - it made my faith even greater. With that being said, my faith was now “knowledge” to me - I was quite strong and sometimes abrasive with my approach about sharing my views with other people of different faiths and/or those who lacked any faith whatsoever. I argued with Christian fundamentalists about homosexuality in the bible. Looking back now, it was totally pointless. There wasn't any...

For the past few years, the only types of Christmas gifts I would give to my wife were gift certificates to spas or have a massage therapist come over to our home and untangle the stress from Madelene's aching body. In the past, I used to give her beautiful jewelry - everything from tennis bracelets to diamond crosses, but much to my surprise, she’s into a more simplified type of jewelry, where I can’t possibly rush off by myself and pick it out for her. She likes custom designed jewelry. Usually, that means trekking over to Sugar Loaf, NY where we have a few friends who make their jewelry right on location. It’s always a fun trip, but for some reason, I just wanted to get her something different this year. Then it dawned on me. One Monday night while watching The A-List New York on LOGO, one of the cast members who happens to be our favorite of the bunch owns his own salon. They would show Ryan Nickulas dazzling up a model and working his magic into her hair for a photo shoot. I ...