Monthly Archives: December 2010
Best Friends – Help Homless Pets and SMILE
Frazzled from shopping yet? Tired of the crowds?
This will put a smile on your face !
Watch these adorable dogs decorate cookies and get ready to celebrate the holidays in style. They’re not only spreading good cheer, they have an important message to share— Make a holiday wish come true for a homeless dog or cat…ADOPT!
HOMELESS PETS – It’s so sad. Best Friends Animal Society is a nonprofit organization building no-kill programs and partnerships that will bring about a day when there are No More Homeless Pets®. At the core of Best Friends’ work is the dream that one day kindness will replace cruelty, and animals will no longer be destroyed because they are unwanted or imperfect. Spaying and neutering will be the rule for all pets and adoption will be the first option for everyone. Making this dream a reality is the mission we call No More Homeless Pets. The society’s leading initiatives in animal care and community programs are coordinated from its Kanab, Utah, headquarters, the country’s largest no-kill sanctuary. This work is made possible by the personal and financial support of a grassroots network of supporters and community partners across the nation.
Sponsor an animal. Help buy food. Donate a dollar or two. Your contribution to Best Friends goes straight to work helping tens of thousands of animals both at the sanctuary at Best Friends and through outreach and rescue programs all around the country.
For more information visit: http://www.bestfriends.org/
WATCH THE VIDEO NOW !
(there are lots of fun videos on their site – sure to make you smile!)
Chicago’s Best Segway Tours With a Holiday Discount!
list that is hard to buy for?
Want to give someone an
ABSOLUTELY wonderful and unique gift?
How about a Segway Tour?!
You have read about them here !
Absolutely Chicago Segway Tours is highly recommended! They offer a great tour and experience of downtown Chicago!
Riding a Segway feels like nothing you’ve ever experienced because there’s never been anything like it. Step on and your instinct will be to steady yourself, as you would on anything with two wheels. But almost immediately you’ll realize that the Segway is balancing for you, almost like it has become an extension of you. Just lean forward a little and you’ll see that the Segway isn’t moving you on its own; it’s moving in response to you and what you tell it to do. It all feels natural and really cool.
Why not buy someone a gift certificate this year for a Segway Tour?
Plus get a discount. Right now, gift certificates are 10% off!! A Segway tour of Chicago is the perfect and unique gift for that special someone that is hard to buy for. If you don’t want to glide in this cold weather, the gift certificates can be used on our Spring and Summer tours.
Contact them at 312 552-5100 for more information!
Added Bonus – BE THEIR FRIEND ON FACEBOOK and find out about all kinds of cool promotions like FREE tickets to shows and other cool stuff! Tell them you read about them here!
Best Gay Chicago.com
Civil Union Community Forum This Thursday at Center on Halsted
The second EQIL
Civil Union Community Forum
will be held this Thursday,
December 16 at 6:00pm
at Center on Halsted.
EQIL CEO Bernard Cherkasov and Director of Public Policy Rick Garcia will be leading the discussion and question-and-answer session.
What: EQIL Civil Union Community Forum
When: Thursday, December 16 at 6:00pm
Where: Center on Halsted
(3656 N. Halsted Street–3rd floor auditorium)
If you have any questions,
please call 773-477-7173.
We look forward to seeing you on Thursday!
*P.S. To celebrate the passage of the civil union bill, community forum attendees will receive discounted access (just $10) to Alien Queen, Scooty & JoJo’s audacious parody of Hollywood’s most terrifying sci-fi franchise, complete with enormous alien puppets, a multi-talented genderbending cast, a laser light show, and a four-piece rock band covering the legendary songs of Queen. Alien Queen will take place at Circuit Nightclub, opposite Center on Halsted, at 7:30pm on Thursday.
Talbott Teas of Chicago Gets Blessed by Oprah
hand of GOD!
When Oprah gives you her blessing, it’s the Midas Touch! You are then destined for greatness!
Such is the case a couple weeks ago, when she aired not one, but TWO specials of her Favorite Things, where she showers the lucky audience with gifts.
Chicago men Shane Talbott and Steven Nakisher, partners in business and in life, experienced that once-in-a-lifetime business boom when their company, Talbott Teas, was tagged as one of Oprah’s favorite things this year.
Nakisher said. ” We are so grateful for this opportunity. This is truly a dream come true. Orders are pouring in from around the world. It’s been amazing. We are just busy filling orders and loving it. Our office feels like Santa’s Workshop.”
Talbott, 38, and Nakisher, 41, have been partners for 14 years and live together in Lakeview.
In 2008, when Oprah launched her Chicago store, the duo approached her, knowing she was an avid tea drinker. They offered to create her a special blend for her store.
“I went right to my lab and got to work,” Talbott said. “I had so many great ideas and had dozens of ideas for tea blends inspired by many of Oprah’s favorite things. After much sampling and editing, I narrowed it down to six blends that I wanted to present to her.
“My assumption was that she would take a look at the options and decide on one to be a featured blend at the store. To my surprise, she loved all six and said we could make all of them. I was blown away. Those six tea blends have been in The Oprah Store since it opened.”
Then, this past October, the two got a call from one of the producers of the show. It was The Call.
“It was a Friday just after 5 p.m., and we were trying to decide where to go for dinner,” Nakisher said. “I answered the phone and the producer said, ‘Congratulations! Ms. Winfrey has chosen Talbott Teas as one of her Favorite Things!’ ”
Talbott and Nakisher had about a month to prepare for The Oprah Effect—and it truly has been a whirlwind, they said.
When you make one of my teas, you make a statement. Like a silk-taffeta
cocktail dress on a runway model, Talbott Teas are steeped in style.
Elegant. Chic. Glamorous. Shane Talbott
You can also read more at Windy City Online
One Man Does it All during ‘A Christmas Carol’ at Moraine Valley
as one frantic stage-manager-turned-actor presents the entire Dickens classic…ALONE!
Scott Lynch Giddings gives a compelling solo performance in this holiday classic. Not unlike the way Charles Dickens performed his story in Victorian England, Mr. Giddings focuses on the classic art of storytelling. Using his voice and mannerisms, Giddings brings life to Ebenezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Marley and the remarkable ghosts found in the greatest Christmas story of all time.
Moraine Valley Community College’s Theater for Young Audiences will perform “One Man Christmas Carol” Sunday, December 12, at 2 p.m., in the Dorothy Menker Theater, in the Fine and Performing Arts Center, on campus, 9000 W. College Pkwy., Palos Hills. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for children.
This family show is a glimpse as to what would happen if the touring company of “A Christmas Carol” didn’t show up, and the stage manager had to go on with the show anyway. Watch in awe as actor Scott Lynch-Giddings attempts to play every role in the show.
Tickets for “One Man Christmas Carol” and other upcoming performances can be purchased at Moaraine Valley , by calling (708) 974-5500, or at the Box Office located on the south end of the Fine and Performing Arts Center. Moraine valley is just MINUTES from downtown Chicago.
Singer Jay Brannan in Chicago Friday December 10th
is an openly gay musician, singer, songwriter with a voice and has a musical ability that matches his exceptional good looks and natural ability. You may have seen him in Short Bus or Holding Trevor.
While he is gay, he does not like being labeled as such, “I hate having my sexual orientation used as a title or a genre. It pisses me off. I just want to be a regular musician like anyone else.
When Lisa Loeb sings, she’s singing about her life, her relationships, her experiences. No one ever says she’s singing “straight songs” or that she’s singing about “straight issues”. No one ever says that Whitney Houston’s or Seal’s songs are about “what it’s like being a black person”. At the end of the day, we’re all the same and we all go through the same shit. The rest is just details.”
“I disagree that any of my songs “describe gay relationships”. I don’t think that the singer’s gender and the gender of the other character(s) in the song really affect what the song is about, and I hope we are closing in on the day that people can see that.”
His first full length album was Goddamned in 2008, followed by In Living Cover in 2009. Jay says he is influenced by Lisa Loeb, Tori Amos, Fiona Apple, Bjork, Sinead O’connor, Joni Mitchell and Jack Daniels! “In terms of my music, I feel like it’s pretty representative of me. It’s pretty cynical, it’s pretty dark, it’s pretty honest. That’s who I am. But for some reason, people can accept it in music. ”Oh, I relate to it so much. Thanks for saying all the things I’ve been thinking. I thought I was the only one.” Etcetera. And then they turn right back around and they’re like, ”Why are you so sad all the time? Can’t you smile more?” I want to be like, ”You can have one or the other.” If I was that person everyone seems to want me to be, the music would be very different. And probably no one would care.”
“Pretty much everything I write comes from my own reality. Anger and pain and frustration are my main motivating factors for writing, and I try to be as honest and accurate in my lyrics as I can. That’s not to say every song is a complete literal account of a real life event, though some are. Sometimes I combine a couple different relationships or experiences into one song, but make it all one story for the sake of the song. Or sometimes you take an emotion or sentiment and magnify it a little to make it more interesting. You only have three or four minutes, so sometimes you make adjustments so that each song is coherent in such a small amount of words, but it definitely is a patchwork of reality. That’s my goal, anyway.”
Everything about Jay Brannan’s young career is improbable. Defying legions of critics both personal and professional, he has managed to build a shockingly dedicated following in a very non-traditional way.
Though kicked out of acting school for alleged lack of ability, he entered the film arena with a standout performance in 2005’s Shortbus , and achieved rising cult star status upon the film’s worldwide release. Urged to “play it straight” during his Southern upbringing, he has become a lightning rod for castaways by simply being himself: a neurotic and inspiring mess. In 2007, Logo aired his first video .
A self-described loner and a passionate insomniac, Jay found himself spending countless hours on the Internet cultivating his online networks and answering emails from around the globe. His burgeoning online following tipped when he posted a 3:00 a.m. laptop performance of “Soda Shop” on YouTube, which found itself featured on the website’s homepage and has since been viewed 1.5 million times. “I was a random guy at home fucking around with his computer, thinking no one would ever watch the video if I posted it. I guess I was wrong.”
He has gone on to post every new song as it’s been written. These online videos have accumulated millions of plays and their response has given Brannan the confidence to take his musical ambitions full time.
“I’m just a little bit honored that people relate to my music at all and feel the impulse to even write me to tell me that. The feedback is partly what keeps me doing it. When I write songs and play them, it’s never really for other people, or what other people think. It’s really my way of expressing myself, or giving voice to thoughts that have been racing around in my head for years and years. At the same time, the feedback and some of the validation has kept me pursuing it as a career, because that part is really, really tough.”
JAY BRANNAN IN CHICAGO Friday, December 10th!
@ SUBTERRANEAN 2011 W. NORTH AVE. 773-278-6600
DOORS @ 9:00 PM SHOW @ 9:30 PM | 17 & OVER
TICKETS: $15.00 BUY TICKETS ONLINE! Last years show SOLD OUT!
Jay Brannon.com
Jay on MySpace
Jay on Facebook
Jay Brannan on YouTube
Best Gay Chicago.com
Red Dress Brunch at Cocktail Sunday December 12
is a national event dedicated to creating awareness and visibility for the HIV/AIDS movement and raising funds for organizations that provide vital community services.
The CHICAGO RED DRESS PARTY
will take place April 16th, 2011.
This Sunday, December 12th, join Best Gay Chicago.com as we help kick off a series of mini pre-parties and benefits! RED DRESSS BRUNCH takes place this Sunday at Cocktail, 3359 N. Halsted, from 12-3pm.
Come join us for brunch! Dine out and drink and help a great cause!
“Raise Your Glass” to end HIV/AIDS. Enjoy some fantastic brunch and drink specials will be – $1 Cocktails, $2 Mimosas and $3 Raspberry Long Islands.
20% of proceeds will be donated to Chicago Red Dress Party which supports AIDS Foundations of Chicago and Equality Project.
Join us on Facebook
Best Gay Chicago.com
GayCo Presents SCREAM If You Love Christmas!
GayCo – Chicago’s premier LGBT-comedy company has more than Kindles and AppleTVs to set beneath the tree this year. Their second original holiday revue, SCREAM IF YOU LOVE CHRISTMAS, unwraps like an explosion of tinsel-laden satire on the one time of year that has everyone shrieking . . . in ecstasy or pain. Hear what it’s like to be on the Dickensian down low. Join the white elephant circle of re-gifting. Share the discomfort of being around your birth family when your loved ones are states away. It’s Jesus, Mary and Joseph in the age of Twitter, Facebook and Grindr. And it will make you scream.
Scream If You Love Christmas
Directed by Katie Watson, Musical Direction by Jeff Poindexter
Written and Performed by Kelly Beeman, Jim Bennett, Kathy Betts, Judy Fabjance, Clay Goodpasture, Vincent Kracht, and Homer Marrs, with additional material by Andy Eninger and John Loos.
Runs
Thursdays @ 8:00 pm, December 9 through 30@
Annoyance Theatre, 4830 N. Broadway, Chicago, IL 60640(Broadway at Lawrence, Red Line Lawrence stop, #36 bus to Lawrence)
$15 tickets can be purchased at the door or online at TheAnnoyance.com .
About GayCo Productions: GayCo Productions is the home for comedy where gay is the given, not the punch line. Born at the famed Second City in 1996, GayCo advances the gay agenda through subversive satire by creating high-quality shows for Chicago audiences. GayCo also sends the comedy to the people with a touring ensemble, online videos, and short films. In 2011, GayCo will present a spring revue for the ladies, “Breast in Show,” a new summer revue, and a solo piece on issues related to aging in the gay community. For more information, visit GayCo.com .
Best Gay Chicago has FREE TICKETS for I Love You Phillip Morris Dec. 8th
FREE TICKETS
to a Chicago screening of
I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS!
Wednesday, Dec. 8th @ 7pm
@AMC River East, 322 E. Illinois
Join BEST GAY CHICAGO.com
for the long-awaited
Jim Carey – Ewan McGregor movie
that is comedy-drama film based on the real life events of con artist, impostor, and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell played by Jim Carrey.
Carey starts out straight. Well, sort of. But then Carey says in the film, “I’m GAY GAY GAY GAY GAY!” He also realizes, that being gay is expensive! So he starts conning and ends up in jail!
While incarcerated, Russell falls in love with his fellow inmate, Phillip Morris (Ewan McGregor). After Morris is released from prison, Russell escapes from prison four times in order to be reunited with Morris. The film was adapted from I Love You Phillip Morris: A True Story of Life, Love, and Prison Breaks by Steve McVicker.
The movie is one of the gayest high profile movies ever made! And it has been in distribution limbo for the last year. Finally it’ll hit big screens in December! But we have FREE TICKETS to get you in, before anyone else!
WATCH THE TRAILER NOW !
It is going to be a hilarious ride!
Join us Dec. 8th!
Roadside Attractions has kindly allowed us to invite our readers! That’s right, you can come join us FOR FREE!
Print off your FREE passes NOW.
Just right click on the pass below and save it your desktop. Then print it off. Each pass will admit 2 people. Print off a bunch and bring you friends!
Arrive early and see you, at the movies!
Chicago Takes Off Kickoff Event on December 5
Chicago competed for the title
of “Chicago’s Sexiest,”
in Test Positive Aware Network’s (TPAN)
Bar-lesque fundraising event and online
strip-a-thon which took place throughout November.
Bars competing in the competition included Angelina Ristorante, Atmosphere, The Call, Cell Block, Cocktail, Hydrate, Jackhammer, Minibar, Roscoe’s, Sidetrack, Spin, Touche, and the Velvet Rope. In total, the bars and contestants raised a total of $21,305 to support TPAN’s HIV/AIDS programs and services.
The winner will be crowned at the official kickoff extravaganza for Chicago Takes Off to be held Sunday, December 5 at 4 p.m. at Scarlet Bar, located at 3320 N. Halsted.
“In its third year, we’re delighted to raise an amazing amount of money for TPAN,” said Dan Paterno, co-chair of the events. “We truly value the fundraising efforts of everyone who’s been involved with Bar-lesque this year and the volunteers who have put so much time and effort into the events.”
The online competition ended at 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, November 30 with one winner cinching the title, a mere $360 more than the second place contestant. TPAN has announced that the Web site, BAR LESQUE , will re-launch on Monday, December 6 to give donors an opportunity to contribute end of the year donations and continue supporting their favorite bar staff.
Chicago Takes Off: Lido des Boyz
Sunday’s crowning and Chicago Takes Off kickoff event will feature statuesque performers in themed regalia to launch ticket and raffle sales for the main event, which will be held on Saturday, March 5, 2011 in two shows, 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m., at the Park West.
In its fifth year, the Chicago Takes Off theme is “LIDO des Boyz,” which is sure to tease audiences with the enchantment and exhilaration of Paris’s famed Lido Cabaret, all in support of TPAN’s mission of providing HIV/AIDS programs and services. Macy’s has joined the 2011 spring event as the presenting sponsor.
For tickets and information about Chicago Takes Off, log on to Chicago Takes Off .
BREAKING NEWS – CIVIL UNIONS Will Now Become Legal in ths State of Illinois!!
WE WON!
We did it! Just moments ago, the Illinois State Senate passed the Illinois Religious Freedom Protection and Civil Union Act with a vote of 32 to 24!
The bill will now go to Governor Quinn, who has promised to sign it into law. Once signed into law, civil unions will be available to Illinoisans effective July 1, 2011.
On that date, thousands of same-sex couples in Illinois will have access to protections that were previously denied to them, such as emergency medical decision-making, hospital visitation, inheritance rights, and others. This is a historic moment for our State, and we would not have been able to get here without the extraordinary leadership of the bill’s chief sponsors, State Representative Greg Harris and State Senator David Koehler. Many of our partner organizations and community leaders devoted endless energy to helping pass this bill. Clergy all around Illinois educated their congregations and even prayed for elected officials to understand the urgency of the protection that civil unions offers. And our supporters from every corner of the State participated by contacting lawmakers, canvassing, phonebanking, writing letters, and making contributions. This is your victory too.
Thank you for supporting Equality Illinois and our mission to achieve full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.
Sincerely,
Bernard Cherkasov
Chief Executive Officer
P.S. We can only succeed in our mission with your support. Please make a contribution today.
LIKE Howard Brown on Facebook and They Get $25!
Just to go the Howard Brown
Facebook page
and LIKE them.
And they get $25 from
an anonymous donor!
How easy is that?! And it costs you NOTHING! Tell all your friends! They need 1000 people to LIKE them and the get $25,000!
Best Gay Chicago.com
Breaking News – Civil Unions for Chicago and Illinois is One Step Closer
PASSES IN ILLINOIS!
THE CIVIL RIGHTS AGENDA
& LGBT CHANGE MOVE
FORWARD WITH MARRIAGE
EQUALITY IN ILLINOIS
Springfield, Illinois – Tuesday, November 30, 2010 – Today, the Illinois House of Representatives voted to pass the Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act by a vote of 61 to 52. After passage by the Senate (hopefully this week) and being signed by Governor Quinn, the Act will take effect July 2011.
With this vote, the Illinois General Assembly has taken one more step towards equality in Illinois. “Today the Illinois House of Representatives made history,” stated Anthony Martinez, Executive Director of The Civil Rights Agenda and Co-Executive Director of LGBT Change. “Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) families in Illinois have gained desperately needed protections that surround the most personal times of our lives. With this victory, The Civil Rights Agenda (TCRA) and LGBT Change have verified that our strategy is effective and impacted this vote for the better.”
TCRA and LGBT Change have already shown that their grassroots approach to organizing the community and working with allies has been effective. In the last election, The Civil Rights Agenda Fund and LGBT Change, working in coordination with a number of allied groups, reached nearly 70,000 LGBT friendly voters and saw a 75% turn-out in targeted precincts across Illinois. The organizations also identified specific races where the stakes were high for LGBT civil rights, and impacted the outcome by driving voters to the polls. As civil unions came close to a vote, TCRA and LGBT Change used their grassroots strategy to mobilize hundreds of volunteers, made close to 20,000 calls to constituents in target legislative districts and had a continuous lobbying presence in Springfield.
“When our organizations became engaged in this issue, we realized that Representative Harris, the Chief Sponsor of the Bill, was diligently working in the absence of support from the community and was lacking support from community organizations in critical areas. Immediately we deployed a legislative team and began working to secure votes on both sides of the aisles,” said Lowell Jaffe, Political Director of The Civil Rights Agenda.
LGBT Change and The Civil Rights Agenda will be working together to ensure that those Legislators that voted ‘NO’ will be exposed, targeted and defeated. We will also ensure that the Legislators that stood by the LGBT Community will be thanked and protected.
The Illinois Religious Freedom and Civil Union Act will grant the same benefits, obligations and responsibilities of marriage, under state law, while protecting the rights of religious institutions to define marriage as they choose. The major benefits include hospital visitation, healthcare decision making, disposition of a deceased loved one’s remains and probate rights. Civil unions would be available to any couple, same-sex or opposite-sex, in a committed relationship who are: 18 years of age or older, not in an existing marriage or civil union, and are not related. The Act will also provide for the dissolution of civil unions in the same way as divorce. This Act will take effect July 2011.
“We are finally on the bus,” said Jacob Meister, President of The Civil Rights Agenda, “but we will keep fighting until we are no longer relegated to the back. For too long the leadership in the LGBT community has been willing to accept ‘separate but equal’ status. The Civil Rights Agenda and LGBT Change’s success with civil unions proves that if we continue to organize and build coalitions, we will reach a point of full civil rights for all people.”
Additionally, The Civil Rights Agenda and LGBT Change will now turn their efforts to marriage as a matter of full equality. “It’s time to open a new chapter and start the march toward full marriage equality,” Matty Zaradich, Co-Executive Director of LGBT Change added, “We won’t drink from a separate water fountain; we won’t accept ‘separate-but-equal’ treatment, and we won’t tolerate a government that discriminates against its own citizens.”
