Travel newsletter offers worldwide insights for its gay, lesbian readers
Don’t wait for Kathie Lee Gifford to exhibit that June-is-busting-out-all-over fervor and beckon you aboard a Carnival Cruise to Solomon Bay in the Caribbean.
Solomon Bay? According to a new travel newsletter, Out & About, it’s “the one gay-ish beach” on St. John. Head down Route 20, turn left at the Park Service sign, park at the end of the cul de sac and walk the 10-minute trail down to the sea.
Nor can one imagine most travel publications offering these further insights from Out & About:
– “Antonio & Hank’s Adobe Guesthouse (in Santa Fe, N.M.) is a traditional bed and breakfast located about five minutes outside of town. The gardens surrounding the house are beautiful, and the house feels warm and comfortable. The previous owner was allegedly Georgia O’Keeffe’s sometime lover, and the bed they shared is yours for the asking!”
– “Goat Dressing: Created especially for the gay rodeo, teams of two catch and tether a goat, then fit a pair of men’s jockey shorts on its backlegs.”
– “Most Israeli men are handsome, and nearly all look gay! You’ll see lots of macho men, many in a uniform that should be one or two sizes larger. They will eye-contact you-unfortunately that doesn’t usually mean what you want it to mean.”
– “The Hydrangea House (Newport, R.I.), with 6 rooms, is elegant, luxurious and gay-owned. (Clientele is mostly straight.) Breakfast is served downstairs in their contemporary art gallery.”
It’s all been in the year-old, 10-times a year, 4,000-subscriber newsletter meant as an upscale guide to travel worldwide for gays and lesbians. It was started by two chums, publisher David Alport and editor Billy Kolber.
“There literally was no quality source of travel information for gays and lesbians,” asserted Alport, 31, a former director of marketing in American Express’ credit and travel divisions, while attending an industy gathering in Chicago.
That might be overstatement, as there are sources for gays, notably annually published guides. Still, those tend to be either men’s-oriented guides, which focus on sleezier parts of a locale or women’s guides, which direct one to the cheapest alternatives.
Alport and Kolber, 29, who ran an American Express travel office in New Haven, Conn., aim for a higher-class publication with more current listings. Seeking an image of editorial honesty, it carries no ads, though that’s making virtue out of necessity, because few airlines or car rental firms will touch a gay publication.
Thus, $49-a-year Out & About combines what New York-based Alport referred to as “issues stuff” with traditional data about airfares, lodging, sightseeing and restaurants. “Issues stuff” also means stories rating frequent-flier programs on incorporating “spousal equivalents” and stories on travel restrictions for the HIV-infected.
Its reader surveys indicate a well-educated, mostly male readership, the latter not surprising in that gay-related direct mail lists relied on by fledgling enterprises are male-dominated. And, no surprise, there’s lots of disposable income, with average household income at $123,000.
Out & About can be ordered via 542 Chapel St., New Haven, Conn., 06511. It’s also found in about 300 retail outlets, including Kroch’s and Brentano.
The incredible hunk
Several female Tribune colleagues displayed a collective passion recently while hovering over a copy of November’s Vanity Fair. The cover featured the muscle-bound torso of Sylvester Stallone, the most famous graduate of the Vic Tanny School of Acting.
Was Our Ladies of the Tribune’s intense response a hint of an imminent rise in circulation?
A Vanity Fair spokeswoman said that preliminary figures indicate that Stallone’s is the best-selling male cover ever at the magazine, whose average circulation is 1.1 million, including more than 300,000 at newsstands. He tops last March’s Bill Clinton cover, but would be just sixth overall.
Julia Roberts, on the October cover, is in a virtual tie for top honors with two Demi Moore covers, including the well-publicized one of a pregnant Moore. Madonna and k.d. lang follow.
Bring your favorite dish
Then we have Our Ladies of the Sun-Times.
Five of them-Mary Galligan, Cindy Richards, Michelle Stevens, Adrienne Drell and Susy Schultz-are launching a Chicago chapter of a new national Association for Women Journalists and ask interested souls to a potluck brunch Nov. 7, noon to 3 p.m., at Northwestern’s Fisk Hall, 1845 N. Sheridan Rd., Evanston.
That’s a Sunday and, as the world knows, Sundays are no longer the same, at least at the Sun-Times.
Comerford’s mess
Cook County Chief Judge Harry Comerford, dancing around a report’s conclusion that Juvenile Court is a mess, last week said no judge would be punished for errors that led to the death of 3-year-old Joseph Wallace.
It’s all of a piece for the remarkable Teflon Judge, a Dan Rostenkowski ally who’s a master at overseeing “blue-ribbon” commissions and reports on the court and avoiding the consequences of his stewardship and horrendous personnel moves over 15 years.
He’s been boss during much of the crime-ridden mess that prompted Operation Greylord. For example, he made ultimately convicted Richard LeFevour head of the First Municipal District, resurrected ultimately convicted Judge Wayne Olson from Divorce Court and put him into Criminal Court and moved a whistleblower, Judge Thaddeus Kowalski.
At most Fortune 500 businesses, he would have been canned.
Opening the windows
The quote of the week might be Chicago Ald. Robert Shaw’s (9th) dramatic Monday assertion, “I think it’s time we opened up the blinds and let the sunshine of public attention flow into the dark corridors of City Hall.”
It’s a scary thought. Still, it’s silly that City Council meetings are not aired especially with Mayor Richard Daley having his own boosterish show on a municipal channel that seems to run more often than the infomercial for Dick Butkus’ outdoor grill. Seventy-one percent of municipalities air council meetings, according to one study.
But Joyce Gallagher, the city’s cable administrator, cited a consultant’s study in warning that the taxpayers might have to fork over $600,000 to get meetings of the 50-member council aired.
That’s high. C-Span official Susan Swain says the cost of outfitting the 435-member House of Representatives for television was about $270,000, for six robotic cameras ($35,000 apiece) and six tripods ($10,000 apiece).
Cable officials in several cities cited costs much lower than the $600,000 estimate, even factoring in both the Chicago council’s larger size and related needs, such as for one, perhaps two workers to oversee broadcasts (Chicago’s City Hall is already cable-wired). San Diego contracts the whole deal to a private firm for $1,207 a meeting, or about $44,000 a year.
A Michigan official, who has set up council broadcasts in four cities nationwide, estimated that Chicago could do it for much less-if the Daley administration, which will receive $8 million this year in franchise fees from cable firms, had the will.
`Like a yappin’ dog’
Boys Will Be Boys, Part 3:
Part 1 brought a report here on a Chicago speech by Gregory Garrison, prosecutor in the Mike Tyson rape case, including a slap at Tyson’s appeals lawyer, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz.
Part 2 brought Dershowitz’ response, including allegations of seven outrages committed by Garrison, an assertion that if “he practiced anywhere outside Indiana, he’d be disbarred within a month,” and a challenge (reiterated in two phone calls) to a debate “anyplace, anytime.”
Garrison, back from his honeymoon, saw that response reprinted in an Indianapolis paper and Thursday night returned the volley from a car phone.
“He’s like a yappin’ dog,” the Hoosier said of the professor. “It would all be funny if it weren’t so sad.”
