Is Monica Seles Pushing Speed?

Shire, Maker of Binge-Eating Drug Vyvanse, First Marketed the Disease

I sort of jokingly expressed my skepticism about a new drug Monica Seles is hawking designed to treat "binge-eating disorder." But THIS article in The New York Times has me thinking I'm actually on to something. It sounds like the maker of the drug, Shire, has been the driving force behind pushing the problem as an actual disorder, a designation it only got in 2013. And the drug is a form of speed that is highly addictive, a situation reminiscent of the ADHD craze that overtaken America, which made the company billions via Adderall.

A 1954 advertisement for an methamphetamine-based appetite control drug called Opidice. Shire's new drug Vyvanse also uses a type of amphetamine. 

Trans Visability on Fire

New York's Bravest Is Trans FDNY Firefighter Brooke Guinan! 

Read HERE.

'3 Eras of Gay Sex in 3 Minutes'

Bitch took my table!

"3 Eras of Gay Sex in 3 Mins" Film by Leo Herrera from Herrera Images on Vimeo.

'54' Costar Says: 'Ryan [Phillippe] Looked like Harpo Marx'

54 Bombed in 1998. Now It's Been Resurrected as a Cult Gay Classic. 

Best part of Vulture's article about "54," which had been needlessly degayed for its original theatrical release:

Some of those shifts even hurt the movie's basic continuity. “We had to be shirtless almost the entire time,” [Ryan] Phillippe says of the first period of shooting, “so we’d been in really good shape and had grown out our hair. A couple months went by after we passed production — we’d stopped going to the gym, our hair was cut — then we got the phone call: 'You’re going to have to go to the set in two weeks and get back into those tiny silver shorts and be half-naked again.'” “We both looked like we had some terrible disease that had taken away all our muscle mass,” says [Breckin] Meyer. “We’re in these wigs — I look like Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer from 'SNL' and Ryan looks like Harpo Marx.”

Read on HERE.

Anne Bobby Brings Her 'Chapter Verses' to Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3 Tonight

One of my cabaret favorites is performing tonight on the Lower East Side -- the perfect excuse to have a drink, relax and warm up. (And she's covering Kirsty MacColl!!!!!!!!!!)

Anne Bobby Presents CHAPTER VERSES: The Songs I Took to Brooklyn 

Anne Bobby presents CHAPTER VERSES: The Songs I Took to Brooklyn, an evening built around a dozen songs both old and new, overlooked and forgotten pop and rock gems from the ‘60s to today. They may never have cracked the Top Ten, but they tell stories that are as much a part of her as the place she now calls home. Guests include Laura Dean on vocals, Shannon Ford on percussion and Christopher Schelling on piano. Known for roles on TV ("Mad About You)" and film ("Happiness"), Anne made her Broadway debut at 16. Join her for this celebration of should-have-been-hits from Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Kirsty MacColl, Ben Folds and more.

Rockwood Music Hall Stage 3

185 Orchard St. New York, NY,

Doors 6:30 PM / Show 7:00 PM

This event is 21 and over

Tickets HERE.

I Saw It On the Shelf

File this under "Serendipitous": Happened to go into Three Lives & Co. bookstore last night and noticed my pal Kevin Sessums' new book on the shelf. Took a photo to share with him online, without realizing the book wasn't officially coming out until today -- it was almost closing time, so the shop had obviously done its work for the following day already -- which meant this was the first time he was actually seeing it for sale. Having released a memoir of my own about a year ago, I know how emotional it is to have your most intimate thoughts exposed to the world.

Kevin responded with this:

Congrats, Kevin! His first book, "Mississippi Sissy," was incredibly poetic and moving. Cannot wait to dig in to your latest work.

Order HERE.

Listen to Kevin read an excerpt from the book HERE.

Description:

On his 53rd birthday, Kevin Sessums woke up in his L.A. hotel room wondering how he would get through his scheduled interview with Hugh Jackman. For years he had interviewed the bright lights: Madonna, Courtney Love, Jessica Lange, and all the other usual suspects; but, Kevin knew that his rapidly unraveling life was as shallow as the hotel's hip furniture and he was hanging on by his fingertips. In I Left It on the Mountain, Sessums chronicles his early days in NY as an actor, his years working for Andy Warhol at Interview and Tina Brown at Vanity Fair, countless nights of anonymous sex, his HIV Positive diagnosis and his descent into addiction. It's also the chronicle of one man's spiritual redemption found while climbing to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro, walking the Camino de Santiago de Compostelo and trudging across the cold, lonely winter beaches of Provincetown. Peopled with the famous like Daniel Radcliffe and Diane Sawyer as well as anonymous companions corporeal and otherwise whom he met while mountain climbing and hiking, I Left It on the Mountain is the story of one man's fall and rebirth, the next moving chapter in Kevin Sessums' extraordinary life that takes him from the high to the low and back again. For readers who loved Mississippi Sissy and want to know what happened to that tenacious little boy with the baseball mitt, I Left It On the Mountain is the sometimes very dark, but ultimately hopeful answer.