Carly Rae Jepsen on the Cover of Volume 12 of 360 Magazine

Here's a sneak peek at our Summer, Volume 12 issue featuring Carly Rae Jespen.

I'm so happy she's a part of our magazine. If you're already a huge fan, you know all about her website, where you can read about her music career and check out tour dates, photographs and videos, especially "Call Me Maybe," which she co-wrote and, as she says on her site, "never expected to take off quite like this."

The Official Veronica Mars CCSD Sneak Peek

On July 19, 2013, Rob Thomas, Kristen Bell and other cast members of the Veronica Mars film participated in a Comic-Con Panel in San Diego, California.

This video was played for the audience and includes the first trailer for the film, as well as behind-the-scenes conversations with the cast and creator/writer/director, Rob Thomas.

My favorite scene involves the telephone call propelling Veronica back to Neptune, California.

Escape to Portola Hotel & Spa in Monterey

I had lunch in June with Ballantines PR's Sarah Robarts and Dara Toulch at Cafe Flore in the Castro. It was a sunny, gorgeous day (rare in the summer in San Francisco). They introduced me to Janine Chicourrat, the general manager at Portola Hotel & Spa in Monterey, California. It did not take long for Janine to convince me to visit this AAA-rated 4-Diamond hotel, one of but three TAG-approved hotels in Monterey.

I made this video as my partner Phil and I drove south on Highway 1. Calling this drive scenic is like describing Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe" as catchy. It felt like we'd driven into a movie.




The Portola Hotel & Spa is only steps away from the entrance to Monterey's wharf. Our room had this spectacular view of the wharf and wide bay.

We dined at the hotel's Jacks Restaurant, enjoyed breakfast room service and hung out in Peter B's, the bar on the side of the hotel nearest the wharf. After spending two evenings exploring Monterey's nightlife, Phil and I agreed it was the bar in town to see and be seen.

I shot this video as we walked along the wharf chock-full of restaurants, bars, retail stores, and fishing and whale-watching tour boats.




It is a leisurely stroll through Monterey's historic cannery row to the world-famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. (You might know John Steinbeck wrote Cannery Row after spending some time with the denizens here in the 1930's.) The Aquarium itself is spectacular and invites you to come and go as much as you like on the day you visit. It was really crowded at times.




Portola Hotel & Spa was the perfect place for Phil and me to relax, be pampered and celebrate our ninth anniversary. Monterey is a lovely town to which to escape the rat race and recharge.

With the recent United States Supreme Court decisions striking down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and California's Prop. 8, the LGBTQ community can now marry in California – and, it seems, in more and more states every month. Portola Hotel & Spa would be an excellent setting for a wedding or honeymoon.

That's not a hint, Phil – though the idea of marriage did come up for the first time while we dined at Jacks Restaurant.

Robbie Rogers and The Trevor Project

This is an outstanding, candid interview with Robbie Rogers streamed live online and conducted by Google+ with The Trevor Project. Robbie discusses growing up very unhappily closeted in a conservative, Catholic family, his coming-out process and now playing soccer as the first openly gay male, professional sports player.

"All-American Boy" by Steve Grand

Two days ago, Twitter was ablaze only hours after openly gay singer/songwriter Steve Grand loaded to YouTube his music video, "All-American Boy," an anthem to unrequited love in small-town America.

Lance Bass tweeted this:

Steve says on Facebook: "I wrote the song during a drunken piano jam session at a party. I recorded the vocals in my parents' basement and worked with my friend Max Steger to record and mix the rest of the instruments."

He created the video with director Jason Knade and enlisted his friends to play bonfire partygoers. The song isn't currently available on iTunes, but can be downloaded here. Steve, who has been called by many the first "openly gay out the gate" male Country singer, says he doesn't yet have a manager or label.

His audience has certainly found him.

I've been playing the video over and over today, as illegal fireworks boomed over San Francisco.

The Bob Mizer Foundation + Anzevino

I received an anonymous text featuring this photograph of a poster now plastered all over New York.

It's an image of William Sexton aka Blue Max Hensley taken in the 1970's by the Athletic Model Guild. The poster announces the collaboration of the Bob Mizer Foundation with designer Anzevino, which has thus far resulted in a line of tee shirts and sweatshirts currently available at Opening Ceremony.


My favorite is the tee shirt featuring snakes on a nude model's lap, but I think I would wear every day the tee shirt with Blue Max Hensley's handsome mug on it.

As soon as I received the text, I congratulated Dennis Bell, the current owner of the Athletic Model Guild and founder of the Bob Mizer Foundation. I think it's great to see Bob Mizer's work appearing in new and exciting ways in this century.

Bell assured me there's much more to come.

You can help support the Bob Mizer Foundation by donating directly at its website. There you will find more information on Bob Mizer, the Athletic Model Guild and the Bob Mizer Foundation, including its mailing address for your donations and updates on gallery shows, screenings and lectures.

43rd Annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade

Today, my partner Phil and I marched with lots of friends in the Bay Times newspaper's contingent in the 43rd Annual San Francisco Gay Pride Parade.

I didn't make a video this year. Instead, I tweeted 6-second Vine clips, as I waved a huge rainbow flag over my shoulders.

Here we march past the grandstands. Later, I heard 1.5 million people came to San Francisco this weekend to celebrate gay pride. It definitely felt like all of them were spectators along the parade route.






After the parade, there was a VIP party in San Francisco's City Hall.



Four days earlier, I shot this video only hours after the United States Supreme Court struck down key components of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and dismissed California's Prop. 8 case, which had already been struck down by a lower court. These two decisions, of course, brought marriage equality to California. This issue of the Bay Times very nicely details what a historic week this is in the LGBTQ community's struggle for equality rights in the United States.





Later in the evening, there was a massive street celebration in the Castro, with a stage set up at 19th and Castro streets to showcase DJ's, live music and performances by drag queens.

EVE on the Cover of Volume 11.1 of 360 Magazine

Earlier this month, 360 Magazine did a photo shoot in New York City with rapper EVE, who appears on the cover of our Volume 11.1 issue.

Her fourth solo album, Lip Lock, was released in the United States on May 14.

That same day, we released this video interview EVE made with Eiko Watanabe shortly after the 360 Magazine shoot wrapped.




Everyone at 360 Magazine was delighted when EVE tweeted a thank you to our team.

We look forward to her continued, fabulous success.

PlayGround Film Festival Starts Today

Late last month, I spent an afternoon in Oakland, California with Dances With Light 's Barry Stone, who's producing the 2nd Annual PlayGround Film Festival now playing at various San Francisco Bay Area theaters through the end of May.

The festival showcases six short films based on short plays produced by PlayGround Theater, plus a fun clip of each writer describing how they conceived of their original piece.




After I watched the festival screener, Barry and I discussed making a trailer.





Here's Barry recording the voice over of one version of the trailer we thought up.

I hope to see you at the festival.

It's a fun way to spend an evening while showing your support for the San Francisco Bay Area independent filmmaking community.

Check out these reviews by SF Weekly and Berkeleyside.

Officially a VERONICA MARS Fan Boy

UPDATED May 3, 2013: This fan boy's dream came true on April 12, 2013, when the Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign successfully raised the funds needed to make the Veronica Mars movie.

Production begins in Los Angeles, California in June, 2013.

The campaign broke Kickstarter records for raising the fastest $1,000,000, for raising the fastest $2,000,000, for being the highest-funded project in its film category, for having the most backers, and for being the third highest-funded project in Kickstarter history.

When Rob Thomas, creator of the CW's cult television show, Veronica Mars, tweeted me near the start of the campaign, I knew I was officially a fan boy of the show.

The series ran from 2004 to 2007 and stars Kristen Bell as a high school detective.

Female lead + neo-noir thriller = must-see TV for me.

I very much look forward to the film due out summer, 2014.