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Pink ladies

Slowly coming back to life online after five days in Chicago. Below is a shot of my friend Joe and I at the Gay Journalists Hall of Fame induction on Saturday night. And on the right is a shot of friends David and Javier, my best girl.

Below, my college classmate Chagmion from LOGO television and my college journalism professor Robyn. My friend Paul and I at the Hall of Fame.

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the Hall of Fame dinner; here my friend Joe strikes a pose with our friend Neil Giuliano, the new president of GLAAD. On the right is my friend Manny, whose roof deck in Los Angeles I rave about in an old article.

Posted by Sebastian / September 26, 2005 /

Chicago

Here are a few snaps in and around Millennium Park in Chicago. The expansive space features some of the most impressive public art America has ever seen including the Crown Fountain and its two 50-foot high glass block towers onto which are projected the faces of Chicagoans, and the highly-polished, cityscape-reflecting stainless steel "Cloud Gate."

Posted by Sebastian / September 26, 2005 /

Oprah

Last week, a lifelong dream came true: I got to be in the Oprah studio audience. The topic was women who have been duped by their men. The show featured six Houston women, all twenty-somethings, who were all married, engaged, or carrying the baby of the same man at the same time. And improbably, not one of them figured it out. This guy was obviously quite good as a pathological liar.

The second portion of the show featured a stylish, svelte Chicago woman who was left $6 million in debt after her plastic surgeon boyfriend abandoned her and her family during a lavish Mediterranean vacation. One day, after taking a whole slew of people to Europe on their private jet for a bit of R & R, he left their yacht "to go shopping" and never returned. He is not dead, but is instead believed to be cruising the Riviera leading a certifiably narcissistic lifestyle. The show used the missing man as an example of the destruction that can happen when women -- or anyone, really -- allow themselves to be seduced into a life that seems too good to be true.

But the best part of the show was before it began; the rather attractive audience warm-up guy was terribly cute, and I couldn't help but stand up during a Q & A and ask if he is single. He almost didn't know how to respond, but the audience certainly laughed. And then later, while taking a boat cruise in the Chicago River, one of the other people on board came up to me and asked, "are you single?" It turns out she was also at Oprah and remembered me.

Posted by Sebastian / September 26, 2005 /

My Transcontinental Odyssey

A while back I embarked on a five-city hop from coast to coast on a United Airlines 757 -- a journey that is typically a seamless six-hour nonstop flight. And to keep it real, I did it all in economy class and without the aid of my iPod (painful to say the least). I took off at 9 a.m. EDT in Boston and touched down in California at 7 p.m. PDT that evening, just in time to turn around and take a red-eye back east. I like to fly, but not even I would do something so silly merely to spend quality time cramped in a tin can barreling westward at 500 knots. My real motivation was research for a forthcoming travel article on the state of air travel and the concept of the journey as the destination.

United Flt. 881: Dep. Boston 9:00 a.m. Arr. Chicago 10:42 a.m.
Flight boards on-time, and I find myself squashed between two women who make no distinction between my personal space and their personal space. The woman to my left is old and chatty. "I'm going to visit my son," she tells me as if I care twopence. "He's a businessman. You know, those businessmen travel so much these days. They bring their computers everywhere!" she tells me as I furiously pound on my BlackBerry, trying to get out one last message to the grounded masses before the door closes.... More...

Posted by Sebastian / May 13, 2005 /