Remember how New York’s The Plaza had Eloise – the hotel’s most notorious, if elusive, resident? Well, allow me to introduce you to Brian Wonders, who could well be a descendent of one of The Plaza’s most eccentric guests. In fact, you might even think of Brian as Eloise’s globetrotting, hipster-in-training great nephew who, like his great aunt, creates his own fantasy world within the confines of the some of the most fabulous destinations around the globe.

The brainchild of Los Angeles- based artist Victor Robert, Brian Wonders is a modern-day “Alex in Wonderland” whose fantastically colorful world of shipwrecks, cabanas, pirates, diving towers and all manner of mischief is beautifully captured in a glossy, bold, eye-popping limited edition story book entitled The Brian Wonders Wordless Storybook.

Each copy  of this exceptional tome arrives signed, stamped, numbered and accompanied by a Magic Magnifying glass that allows the reader to follow Brian’s adventures through the double-gate maze that folds out in the center of the storybook revealing a whimsical journey filled with fantastical seascapes, shiny submarines, glittering swimming pools, birthday party princesses and sheer magic of all varieties.

Oddly however, despite the crisp images that fill its pages, the Brian Wonders story book was not purely born of wild imagination, but also of sheer happenstance. “I loved swimming as a kid but I had really poor eyesight, and since I couldn’t wear glasses in the pool everything was just a big blur,” explains Robert, whose 3D animations skills have also been on display in some of Dreamworks Pictures biggest hits. “Some of the swimming pools were super deep and swimming to the bottom was like entering a dark ocean, ” he continues in explanation of how the snazzy character of Brian came to be.  :And there was one pool that had large circular windows — underwater — half way up the side walls and I always felt I was peering into the belly of a submarine… that’s where Brian Wonders was born.”

On December 7, 2016 LivingWells will present a launch party with Victor Robert in honor of his the new line of  Brian Wonders products. With that date looming near, I sat down with Mr. Robert to dive into the story behind his passion project, his inspiration and his plans for Brian Wonders.

LW:     Who is Brian Wonders and what inspired him?

VR:     Brian Wonders is a little boy of about 7 years old. He is a swimmer. He has an incredible head of hair. He wants a big bright spotlight to be shined on him, but he is also very shy, so he spends a lot time living out glittering fantasies inside his head. You might find him off playacting by himself.  You might catch him spying on you.  He has a powerful imagination but in his case it is a double-edged sword — he will lose control of his imaginary characters and become captive inside his own fantasy.

I was a swimmer as a kid and swam most of my life from elementary school into high school. Swim practice after school every weekday for years upon years…  I think all that time I spent daydreaming underwater, and Brian Wonders came from there.  I was especially small and skinny for my age and felt smaller by comparison when we’d share the pool with the team of seniors. A lot of this shows up in my drawings.

LW:     In the universe of animated characters, what makes Brian Wonders unique?

VR:     [It’s] Hard to put into words what makes Brian Wonders so unique… much of what makes his character unique will reveal itself in later stories… what I can say is there’s a lot me in him, and I don’t see many characters like him represented in the world of mainstream storybooks.

I think that’s another thing that makes Brian Wonders unique is it was created outside of the mainstream world of storybooks. I’m printing these on my own in very limited quantities, and I had fun including additional flourishes — for example, the magic magnifying glass that comes included with each storybook, the large format of the storybook 12” square and the custom made slipcover, adding a double-gate fold out at the center of the book, the fact that there are no words in the storybook. I look at Brian Wonders as the storybook that I wish existed when I was a kid — or my fantasy of what a storybook should be.

LW:     Let’s talk about the book …tell me about the thought process that went into it and the construction of the book itself?

VR:     The drawings were sketched in pencil and then scanned.  In the computer I added basic colors to figure out the lighting and composition and to experiment with size relationships. This image gets printed out, mounted on wood and I begin the painting process. I used mainly acrylics and guache. This raw painting gets scanned back into the computer and adjusted for print.

There’s a wide variety of techniques in the book — some of the illustrations were put together by overlaying layers of 3D CGI elements and then working those layers into the painting. Some spreads are technically very traditional — graphite lines with washes of color.

The over-sized dimensions of our book required we bring our project to a shop equipped with a large scale digital printer. We found one in Minnesota and they were incredible to work with.

LW:     Who do you see as the ideal audience for the Brian Wonders story book?

VR:     Because of the limited nature of this First Edition, I think anyone looking to give a unique creative gift is the ideal audience. In addition, creative parents, artists and storytellers of every age. Teachers. Collectors of illustrated books. And if you were or if you know of a little Brian Wonders, this book is for them.

LR:      How was your love of animation and drawing born?

VR:     Definitely Disney’s Alice in Wonderland made some strange new connections in my brain the first time I saw it. I must’ve been in kindergarten or 1st grade…all us kids we would sit on the carpet in the music room…the teachers would roll out a rectangular tower entertainment system…this was the early 80s… with a giant television on top and a giant VCR hooked up to it… large dumb knobs and dials and buttons and little orange lights… and they popped in Alice in Wonderland and I was dazzled with the colorful palette and the darkness of it. It was a little scary for me [but] I related to Alice in a way that other boys didn’t [and] in a way I think I fell in love with her.

My love for drawing I think came from there. I remember drawing all over the inside covers of books and creating little flipbooks out of the corners of volumes of required reading.

LR:      What’s next for Brian Wonders?

VR:     Well there’s a lot that’s next. I’ve been working on Brian Wonders a while but I think it’s really just at the very start. His next storybook will be told through the perspective of Stella, the girl with blond swirls of hair in the story  and I’m excited to show her personality. As a 3D animator, I can’t resist the temptation to want to pull the characters into the computer and see them animated. I’m already working on 3D models of Brian and Luna. I need to see the characters animated, I think it’s really important for the world to see him ‘alive’, breathing and speaking and reacting so they ‘get’ who he is.

From a brand standpoint, the Brian Wonders world will begin releasing limited edition gifts including designer toys and a collection of designer home accessories featuring art from the storybooks.

LW:     Final question, do you have a favorite character outside of Brian?

VR:     Aside from Brian I love the character of Luna. Luna is Brian’s inflatable pool animal. She’s got red ears a big blue smile and is covered in colorful polka dots and Brian rides her like you’d ride mounted on a horse. Luna is magical but in the way the Cheshire Cat is magical — back to Alice in Wonderland.  There’s a bit of darkness behind her color… something mischievous… she craves risky adventure… she’s his alter ego.  She will whisper things in Brian’s ear, the same things he’s thinking. And once she’s convinced him, he will climb aboard and they will take off together like a speedboat.

And so the adventure begins.

To purchase The Brian Wonders Storybook or to find out more information about other Brian Wonders products, visit brianwonders.com.

Also join LivingWells next week at Please Do Not Enter in Downtown Los Angeles to celebrate the launch of the Brian Wonders collection of designer home accessories. For more details, click here or seee below.

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Sex. Drugs. Scissors.

Alexander McQueen and John Galliano. Their names are often casually spoken with a familiarity generally reserved for a loved one. You might even be wearing an article of clothing that bears the imprint of one or the other as you read this.  But what do you know of the men behind the labels?

McQueen and Galliano were both tormented gay adolescents from working class families in London, who grew up teased and taunted by their peers. Neither of them was supposed to ascend to the highest thrones in the fashion demimonde, but ascend they did. And like Icarus, what a toll they paid for flying too close to the sun.

Much ballyhoo has been made about the price of beauty, but until recently little has been said about the price affixed to the creation of beauty. Without launching into a diatribe to rival Miranda Priestly’s fulmination on the far-reaching import of the color cerulean, suffice it to say that for every look sent down a runway which later enters our lives in some distillated way, shape or fashion, there is an investment of inspiration, talent, savvy, skill and, occasionally, pain that is often not fully recognized. Such is, at least in part, the premise of Dana Thomas’ recent book Gods and Kings: The Rise and Fall of Alexander McQueen and John Galliano.

In an exhaustively probing examination, Thomas, a fashion journalist, pulls back the curtain on the rise and demise of two of the creative geniuses who defined a generation of fashion. The way they cut, their inspirations, their muses, their lovers, their fears…Thomas covers them all. Along the way, she also illuminates parallels between the careers of McQueen and Galliano –  superstar designers who simultaneously ruled fashion, in spite of the fact that their styles could not have been more divergent.

Irrespective of how familiar you are with the lives of Galliano and McQueen, Gods and Kings is a fascinating read. For hardcore fashionistas the book will be akin to taking a walking down memory lane and recalling both the creative magic that made the two designers gods and the demons that plagued them behind the scenes. Meanwhile, for those who have not been particularly fixated by fashion heretofore, Gods and Kings, will act as the ultimate primer on understanding the innerworkings of haute couture during the moment in time when McQueen and Galliano scaled the heights of fashion; the players that helped them get there; the players that nearly brought them down; and the celebrities and socialites that orbited their respective universes.

At times Thomas can wax a bit rhapsodic about the designers’ various collections, but the tantrums, personalities and occasionally sordid background drama that fill in the gaps help to make this biographical tome cum cautionary tale an engaging read.

To get the book click here.

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Mindy Kaling, the Emmy-nominated creator and star of The Mindy Project, has been nothing short of a revolution since hitting Hollywood. Not only has her insightful and unique brand of funny attracted legions of sympathetic fans, her starring role as Dr. Mindy Lahiri has re imagined the possibilities for female comedians of all stripes on the small screen.

And yet, for all these achievements, the quality that has most frequently made Kaling a hot topic of water cooler conversation is her size. Standing 5’4” and described by Vogue as a fluctuating size 10, Kaling has frequently been caught in the crosshairs of the current debate about size and shape in America because she neither fits the mold of traditional Hollywood starlet nor does she dress the part.

Rather than shy away from the subject of her frame, Kaling has embraced it with rip-roaring humor first in her New York Times bestselling book Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? and now with head on aplomb in her most recent tome, Why Not Me?. An angsty, thought-provoking, intensely personal, impossible to put down read, Why Not Me? is Kaling at her unabashed best.

In her latest collection of essays, Kaling pokes fun at the glamorous world of Hollywood and her role in it, her ongoing battle with self-image which she approaches with self-deprecatory zeal rivaling that of the legendary Joan Rivers, and the difficulty of building real relationships in a town held together by glitter, Botox and array of sly beauty tricks.

In one of the book’s most memorable chapters, “How to Look Spectacular: A Starlet’s Confessions,” Kaling with rare honesty lays bare all the beauty secrets that help her achieve a magazine cover ready look. From hair color, undergarments and body make-up to hair extensions and spray tans, Kaling offers a hilarious exposé on the beauty regimens that necessarily happen behind the scenes to ensure that actresses like herself appear to be the goddesses we worship in magazines and on television. She strips away the artificial while reveling in it, all the while winking at the reader as if to say “it’s all make believe people and I’m in on the joke.”

That said, the great charm of Why Not Me? is Kaling’s casual conversational writing style. Reading the book is akin to reading a great gossipy email from a close girlfriend who just happens to have the inside track on all of Hollywood’s biggest secrets. Sure she’s a big star, but it is Kaling’s ability to write about her experience with stardom with the awe of an outsider that makes reading her books so appealing. She’s the best friend who made it, your friend from college who works on a hit show, that funny friend who you feel proud of every time you see her pop up on the red carpet and so much more. And you just can’t help but root for her.

A perfect pick me up or beach read, Why Not Me? is the perfect accessory for your Spring/Summer 2016 getaway.

To purchase Why Not Me? click here.

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Is your age in spiritual years at odds with the one on that pesky ol’ birth certificate of yours? Well Look the Age You Feel, a new book on grooming for men by author Henrik Vejlgaard, aims to help men avoid what he calls high “age elasticity”, which is the difference between our biological age and our self-perceived age. To that end, the style expert has created a comprehensive common sense, step-by-step guide with tips about everything from the importance of moisturizing and fitness to the subtle signals that a man’s clothes and even the heel of his shoe reveal about his age.

“When a man turns 50 years old, he may feel like a 25 year-old inside. To look like a 50 year-old is then troublesome. And although there are ways of taking years off your age, some simple preventive habits will give the best results,” Vejlgaard says.

Perhaps most interestingly, the book, while useful to men of all ages, takes special pains to prepare younger men for the ravages of the onslaught of time.

“Most men in their twenties and thirties do not think about how they will look in 20 or 30 years’ time. But they should.” Writes Vejlgaard.

“When we are young we typically do not have a lot of money to invest. But then we can invest in something else that will make us happy in 20 or 30 years’ time. Our look.” It’s the kind of advice that is money in the eternal beauty bank.

Find more tips at www.lookyoungermagazine.com.

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As a writer I have always had a certain reverence for the written word, but with the amount of time I spend in my car and in line at airports and just about everywhere else these days, I don’t find that I have nearly enough time in my life to truly enjoy the written word as much I’d like.  Enter audiobooks to fill the void.

I avoided audiobooks for years because listening to a book just seemed lazy to me.  I thought to myself, ‘Why on earth would I  not just pick up the book and read it, rather than listen to it?”  That all changed when I first listened to Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)” (notice I used the term ‘first’ here to denote the fact that I have listened to Mindy Kaling’s book more than once because it’s just that good).

First of all, if you don’t know Mindy Kaling from her role as Kelly Kapoor on “The Office” or as the star of her eponymously named hit show on Fox “The Mindy Project”, stop reading here and get over to Amazon or Hulu or wherever you need to go in order to get up to speed because your life is about to change.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t been living in the desert of the humorless, you probably already know all about Mindy Kaling and the fact that she may well be the best thing to happen to comedy television since Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French made their first appearance on the small screen. Self-deprecating at times and yet supremely confident at others, Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me” is a comedic masterpiece woven around Kaling’s sometimes tragic, sometimes astounding, always funny life.

Read by Kaling herself (which is such a bonus for this audiobook in particular), “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me” explores topics ranging from music and romance to fashion and bad manners while simultaneously offering a backstage tour through Kaling’s eventful life. Here are just a few tidbits to whet your appetite:

Mindy Kaling on music:

“..I find it incredible impossible not to cry when I hear Stevie Nicks’ “Landslide,” especially the lyric: “I’ve been afraid of changing, because I’ve built my life around you.” I think a good test to see if a human is actually a robot/android/cylon is to have them listen to this song lyric and study their reaction. If they don’t cry, you should stab them through the heart. You will find a fusebox.”

Mindy Kaling on boys vs. men:

“Boys are adorable. Boys trail off their sentences in an appealing way. Boys bring a knapsack to work. Boys get haircuts from their roommate, who “totally knows how to cut hair.” Boys can pack up their whole life in a duffel bag and move to Brooklyn for a gig if they need to. Boys have “gigs.” Boys are broke. And when they do have money, they spend it on a trip to Colorado to see a music festival. Boys don’t know how to adjust their conversation when they’re talking to their friends or to your parents. They put parents on the same level as their peers and roll their eyes when your dad makes a terrible pun. Boys let your parents pay for dinner when you all go out. It’s assumed.”

“Men know what they want. Men make concrete plans. Men own alarm clocks. Men sleep on a mattress that isn’t on the floor. Men tip generously. Men buy new shampoo instead of adding water to a nearly empty bottle of shampoo. Men go to the dentist. Men make reservations. Men go in for a kiss without giving you some long preamble about how they’re thinking of kissing you. Men wear clothes that have never been worn by anyone else before. (Okay, maybe men aren’t exactly like this. This is what I’ve cobbled together from the handful of men I know or know of, ranging from Heathcliff Huxtable to Theodore Roosevelt to my dad.) Men know what they want and they don’t let you in on their inner monologue, and that is scary.”

Mindy Kaling on fashion:

“…Chubby people can never truly pull off ethereal the same way skinny people can never be jolly.”

Mindy Kaling on bad manners:

“I don’t think it should be socially acceptable for people to say they are “bad with names.” No one is bad with names. That is not a real thing. Not knowing people’s names isn’t a neurological condition; it’s a choice. You choose not to make learning people’s names a priority. It’s like saying, “Hey, a disclaimer about me: I’m rude.”

I know right?  Hysterical.

Download Mindy Kaling’s “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns)” by clicking here.

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There are days when even I think I’ve picked a pretty good gig in this life, and this is definitely one of those days. As I sit down to write this week’s blog, I am contemplating what a journey life can be. It really is sort of a—well, trip, when you think about it.

When I was barely 10 years old (if that), I somehow got my hands on a tattered old copy of Jackie Collins’ novel The Bitch, ripped the cover off of it (so my mother wouldn’t know what I was reading) and read the book from cover to cover in a day. I couldn’t put it down. Not only did it inspire me to read, it inspired me to write.

Flash forward to the last several years. I’ve had the opportunity to interview Jackie Collins a few times. For one of those chats, I even visited the best-selling author’s palatial digs in the flats of Beverly Hills, where I sat with her in the space where many of the characters in her best-selling novels have been birthed. In addition to being great fun, Jackie is also, as you might imagine, an amazing raconteur, so conversation has always been easy. And each time we’ve met, we’ve always had a good laugh about her books, Hollywood and music—especially music, because Jackie loves music.

Not once have I walked away from a conversation with Jackie Collins without her reeling off a list of new music for me to check out. She loves R&B—everything from Bobby Womack to Robin Thicke—and she knows it intimately, right down to the remixes, so it came as no surprise to me when I ran into her at the cocktail reception preceding Clive Davis’ listening party for the final album of Whitney Houston at the Beverly Hilton. Of course she would be there. The worlds of Hollywood and music collided that afternoon, so it was an event tailor-made for Jackie Collins.

Tonight, as I sat at the London Hotel in Los Angeles, where Jackie hosted a launch party for her sexy new best-selling thriller The Power Trip, I was thinking the real power trip was how I somehow got from the North Side of Jacksonville, Fla., to the chic dining room at the Ramsay sitting across from Jackie as she dished about Tinseltown, sex and “kicking ass,” subjects in which both she and are characters are very well-versed.

Talk about a journey! For half a minute, I drifted away from Jackie’s conversation and remembered the little boy who had read her big bad words for the first time all those years ago, and it was a little surreal. The fancy sophisticated lady whose picture I had seen on that book jacket all those years ago was a few feet away from me, and I actually kind of knew her. For a second, I felt like a character in a Jackie Collins novel (a lesser character, but a character nonetheless), and I was a little struck.

When you live and work in Hollywood, you have these moments a lot. They are fleeting but nonetheless real. And, though some people don’t like to acknowledge them for fear of not seeming cool, I do, and this was one of them. And that’s that. Now back to The Power Trip.

Collins’ latest tome, which was just released in the U.S. after having already become a best-seller in the UK a few months back, is a wild ride of a read, set not in Beverly Hills or Hollywood this time around but instead on a state-of-the-art luxury yacht. And trust me, there’s more action happening on this yacht on this one trip than most people experience in a lifetime on dry land. Because I don’t want to be a spoiler, rather than write my own synopsis of the story, I’ll use the spin from the book’s press release to introduce the story:

In The Power Trip you will meet Aleksandr Kasianenko, a billionaire Russian oligarch, as he sets sail on The Bianca. You’ll meet his sexy supermodel girlfriend, whom The Bianca is named after, and five dynamic, powerful and famous couples invited on the yacht’s maiden voyage: Hammond Patterson, a driven Senator, and his lovely but unhappy wife, Sierra. Cliff Baxter, a charming, never married movie star, and his ex-waitress girlfriend, Lori. Taye Sherwin, a famous black UK footballer and his interior designer wife, Ashley. Luca Perez, a male Latin singing sensation with his older, decadent English boyfriend, Jeromy. And Flynn, a maverick journalist with his Asian renegade female friend, Xuan.

You will also meet Russian mobster, Sergei Zukov, a man with a grudge against Aleksandr. And Sergei’s Mexican beauty queen girlfriend, Ina, whose brother, Cruz, is a master pirate with orders to hold The Bianca and its illustrious rota of guests for ransom.

Sold yet? You should be. Jackie Collins wrote the inspirations for series like Revenge decades ago with characters like Lucky Santangelo, and she invented The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills before there was even a Bravo network with her books likeHollywood Wives and Hollywood Husbands. The Power Trip is another in the best-selling storyteller’s long list of before-their-time page turners, and it is the perfect read for your next trip. Just be prepared to dig into the addictive tale of power, wealth and consequences, because once you start it, I doubt you’ll be able to put it down. But then again, it’s a Jackie Collins novel, so would you ever expect anything different?

Order the book and take Jackie Collins’ The Power Trip by visiting jackiecollins.com/book/the-power-trip. Also be sure to check out the audiobook for The Power Trip  available on Macmillan Audio where Jackie herself reads the book along with a full cast of characters. Here’s a clip:

ThePowerTrip_webclip

And never forget that one of the most exciting parts of Living Wells is always remembering where you came from, because without a touchstone to ground you, you can’t always appreciate where you’ve been—or where you’re going, for that matter. Until next time…be well…live Wells!

Follow Duane @theduanewells

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A little over a year ago, I was visiting Stockholm and had the chance to spend an afternoon and evening with Christopher Makos and Paul Solberg (aka the Hilton Brothers). For those not familiar with this dynamic duo, Christopher Makosis, an internationally renowned photographer and visual artist, not only collaborated with Andy Warhol but also showed Warhol how to use his first camera and introduced him to the work of both Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Meanwhile, Paul Solberg, Makos’ creative partner, is an author and independent filmmaker who worked with Stephen Kinsella on the American indie classic Double Parked.So to say I was in good company that day would be a classic understatement.As it happens, I was there to research a feature on Stockholm fashion and design, and the Hilton Brothers were there shooting images for a new book inspired by Stieg Larsson’s magnificently popular Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels. At some point our itineraries converged, and I ended up in cahoots with Makos and Solberg on a madcap adventure through Stockholm for a few of the most interesting and unexpected hours of that visit. In retrospect, I can say that it was a moment in which my job seemed infinitely easier than theirs. While they ran around setting up one stunning photograph after another, I sat quietly with my tablet and my smartphone documenting all that I needed for my story. I could always go back and research what I needed for my feature. I could send an email or revisit a place online and still get the words right to convey what I needed to convey, but they had no such luxury. Their work was in the moment. Each shot had to be the shot. It was all quite fascinating and humbling to behold. Over dinner, as Christopher and Paul shared images from their visit up until that point, the phrase “a picture says a thousand words” never rang more true. Even then I sensed that in their work they were capturing something extraordinarily special about Sweden, a country I have grown to love more and more with each passing year. So it came as no surprise to me that Publisher’s Weekly recently named the fruits of their visit one of the top 10 travel books of 2012. The stunning new coffee table book from Glitterati Inc, Tattoos Hornets Fire, The Millennium Swedencaptures the Sweden that Stieg Larrson wrote about with such vivid detail in his books. From the people and communities to the culture, lifestyle and countryside of Sweden, Tattoos Hornets Fire, The Millennium Sweden offers a more authentic experience of Sweden than any travel guide could ever hope to deliver. For those who don’t know Sweden, this book will be a sweepingly beautiful introduction. And for those like myself, who already know and love Sweden, it is like taking a trip back and curling up in your favorite corners of a destination that grows more interesting with the passage of time. Enter to win a copy of the book or a trip to Sweden at pinstockholm.com.

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Nowadays, traveling for pleasure is in and of itself becoming something of a luxury, but the fact remains that a great many folks are still setting off for destinations far and wide, and when they do, they often want to do it in grand style. So beyond giving the gift of travel this holiday season, the question becomes what gift to give the luxury traveler that they might not necessarily think of for themselves.  With that in mind, I have put together a little luxury guide for the holiday season with some extraordinary gift ideas for the luxury travelers on your shopping list this year.

Koss Striva Tap In-Ear Wireless Headphones
In my experience, a little music always makes life on the road more pleasurable. In fact, I like to think of the music that I listen to while traveling as the soundtrack to my trip. This season, Koss Striva Tap In-Ear Wireless Headphones offer the best and most portable way to enjoy music both in transit and at rest. No cords, no wires and, best of all, no bulky strap over your head. With built-in Wi-Fi receivers, these in-ear headphones give you three ways to listen to music. First, anywhere you have Wi-Fi access, you can stream thousands of free, high-quality internet stations from the internet directly to your Striva Tap headphones. Next, plug the included Content Access Point (CAP) into any smartphone, tablet, or MP3 player stereo output, and it will transmit the audio right to the headphones—wirelessly.  All that, and you can still use these handy dandy creations like standard headphones by plugging them into any stereo device using the included audio cable. $500; koss.com

Taschen 4 Cities
Even the most seasoned traveler can learn a thing or two about some of the most well-travelled destinations in the world and giving the gift of Taschen’s 4 Cities series guarantees that they will. This stylish, pocket-sized box set includes 12 volumes loaded with insider tips about the best hotels, restaurants and shops that Paris, New York, London and Berlin have to offer. $59.99; taschen.com

Goyard Passport Cover
It may be true that all passports are made equal, but the same cannot be said of the way in which we carry them. A passport cover from the centuries-old house of Goyard not only says that its owner is a luxury traveler, but it reveals them to be a classically stylish one as well. $645; goyard.com

Kudocase iPad Solar Charger
It’s green and it’s useful—that alone makes it a luxury. But the fact that the Kudocase iPad Solar Charger uses photovoltaic ink technology to convert indoor and outdoor light into usable energy that can charge your iPad for up to an average of 10 days is the real selling point. That you might need one less converter for a device when you’re on the road makes this super cool innovation worth its price and then some. $129.95; kudocase.com

Jumpjet Membership
Give the gift of an Upper Club Jumpjet membership this holiday season, and the recipient of your largesse will surely beam from ear to ear. And they should, because this is a membership that certainly has its fair share of privileges. Upper Club members can make up to 10 round-trip flights per year on a private jet, with a party of up to eight people. (Additional charges apply for additional passengers.) And what’s even better, members fly to and from small, executive terminals throughout the United States, so there’s no hassle with long waits in security lines, airport traffic during busy season or pesky delays.  $550 for the membership plus a $2,350 monthly fee; jumpjet.com

For more luxe gift ideas, visit my Springpad holiday notebooks: Gifts for the Luxury Travel Enthusiast and 2012 Holiday Gift Guide: My Grown-Up Christmas Wish List.

Until next time…be well…live Wells. Happy Holidays!

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When I met Johnny Weir at a photo shoot in Hollywood, he wasn’t at all what I expected—a revelation that the well traveled, two-time Olympian has become all too accustomed to hearing. He was smaller than I had imagined, but then again most celebrities are. His voice was neither boisterous nor demanding, but instead disarmingly soft and pleasant. He greeted every single person assembled to make Hollywood magic at his photo shoot with a beaming smile and flurry of hugs and handshakes, regardless of whether or not he’d ever met them before. Having been one of those he hadn’t been introduced to prior to that moment, I was equally charmed by his inviting demeanor and surprised by how at odds it was from the portrait media reports had painted of him.

Then again, Johnny Weir is a purposeful chameleon, and he’ll tell you as much. That is not to say that he is disingenuous, but rather that he isn’t afraid to let people see all of him…the good and the bad. “Life is a show and I can play lots of different characters if need be,” Johnny told me matter of factly in our interview after that photo shoot, and it’s a darn good thing that’s the case, because he most certainly wears a lot of hats, all of which fit him like a couture glove.

With the 2011 release of his autobiography Welcome To My World: My Hot Life On Ice and the debut of his first music single “Dirty Love” the ever-enterprising, three-time US champion, world medalist, fashionista, and ice-skating icon, added the titles author and singer to his ever-expanding pedigree. Now with his recent marriage to Georgetown Law School graduate Victor Voronov and the second season of his reality series Be Good Johnny Weir set to air on LOGO, the newly minted Mr. Johnny Weir-Voronov is poised to tack devoted husband and reality TV star onto his glamorous Curriculum Vitae. And the first quarter of 2012 is barely over. At this rate, perhaps Johnny’s next reality series should be entitled Don’t Just Be Good, Be Everything Johnny Weir.

When you’re meeting fans in far-flung corners of the globe, what’s the most common misconception you find that people have about you?

I think the greatest misconception that people have about me is that they think I’m a huge diva and that I do everything in my life for attention. I can tell you that if I hadn’t become a figure skater, and I still lived in a small town in Pennsylvania, I would be exactly who I am. Maybe I wouldn’t know as much about fashion or own as much fashion as I do, but I would be the same exact person. I don’t hate that I have this diva persona, but it does get grinding when people meet me and say, ‘Oh I thought you were going to be the biggest bitch!’

Now that you mention divas and personas, the cover of your new book Welcome To My World: My Hot Life On Ice is rather, shall we say, diva-esque?

Well, I wanted the cover to be very much how the world sees me because my story itself is very pure…it’s very similar to the mass market of America. I mean, I’m from a small town, I wanted bigger things, I worked hard, and I achieved them. That’s my story. There’s nothing so outrageous or different about my story from a million other people, so I wanted the cover of my book to be a direct contrast to how I live my life. The cover is everything the world thinks of me …[but] I know that it’s not me. Of course, I’ve got that girl inside me who wants to wear heels, but in general I’m a low-key, soft-spoken person, and I wanted people to literally judge the book by its cover, then read the book and say, ‘Wow, Johnny’s really not that person at all.’

It’s no secret you love Russia, in fact, you just got back from yet another visit to the former Soviet Union. What’s the connection?

Well Russia for me is a very, very special place. It’s in my heart and every time I’m there I think, ‘I need to live here…I need to be here more often.’ I think everyone who travels—even if it’s just here in the United States—finds that one special place that means the most to them…where they want to be all the time.

When did your love affair with Russia begin?

Since I was five or six years old I’ve understood what Russia was and what it meant. I’ve read history books about Russia…I’ve just always been so interested in it. I really have no idea where it comes from [but], of course, being in a sport like figure skating where Russians are so dominant, I respected very much their sports machine. I just have an affinity for the language…I speak it very well, I can read, write, talk, do everything in Russian and some of my best friends are Russian. It’s just one of those things that is a constant source of inspiration for me. I don’t know what it is, but from a very young age when most kids wanted to learn about dinosaurs and robots, I wanted to learn about Russia, and I wanted to learn about the czars and Russian royal history.

And so the mystery is solved. Is there any wonder then that Johnny found love in the former Soviet Union? Hardly. From inspiration comes love and vice-versa.  Enough said.

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If you’re a gay man, you have more than likely encountered the term ‘straight acting’. In fact, through your experience with online dating, networking or a range of other gay-themed social interactions, you’ve probably even formulated a definition of the term – irrespective of whether or not you’ve ever employed it to describe either yourself or someone with whom you’ve been acquainted. However, your own characterizations of what ‘straight acting’ implies may only begin to touch upon the personal relevance and import of a description that has increasingly come to be used as a defining characteristic among gay men.

Beyond the simple meaning of the heterocentric classification, the larger questions are – How accurate are our perceptions of what it means to be ‘straight acting’? What is the source of those perceptions? And what are their implications on the lens through which we view ourselves and relate to the outside world?

Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love, the new book from author, columnist and psychotherapist Angelo Pezzote, answers all of these questions and more in a compelling and sometimes deeply personal way. A sort of guide book on navigating issues like internalized homophobia, self-esteem and building sustainable relationships based on healthy principles, Pezzote’s new tome provides a road map to real intimacy for all men – gay and straight.

In a recent GayWired exclusive interview, the popular “Ask Angelo” columnist talked to Duane Wells about the inspiration for his new book, what it really means to be ‘straight acting’ and how gay men sometimes resemble characters right out of the film Mean Girls.

Duane Wells: What inspired you to write this book?

Angelo Pezzote: I think there’s some truth in that what we teach is also what we need to learn most. My passion came mostly from my own struggle coming to terms with the issues, particularly from when I lived in West Hollywood. While I tried my best, I just wasn’t an L.A. person.

I couldn’t relate to the people there and it was a painfully lonely time. Emergent from this personal experience, in combination with my professional education and clinical experience, I was inspired to address the problem because I realized I wasn’t the only gay man feeling the way I did. There were many gay men who felt lonely just like me no matter where they lived.

So, besides helping others, writing the book was a way for me to figure out what was happening in our community around disconnection, and to figure out a way for all of us to work through it together. In this way, I think we’re all students and teachers.

DW: So as a student yourself in this process, what was the most revealing or enlightening lesson you personally got from your journey in writing this book?

AP: The intellectual endeavor to “map” Straight Acting – the what is it, where does it come from, and how does it work – the first half of the book, helped me tremendously to cope with it myself; and to help other gay men cope with it through my private practice, workshops, retreats, Ask Angelo advice column, podcasts, teleseminars, and AskAngelo.com website. We can change something if we understand it. Which leads me to the second part of the book, which focuses on solutions.

Thinking those out and writing them inspired me to live my advice each day, not just preach it. So I strive to embody my words.

What was particularly enlightening was adopting a daily practice to stay emotionally open, despite life’s daily challenges. It’s the idea of being fully yourself and being loving, rather than focusing on trying to get love – thinking it’s something you don’t have – from someone else. It’s focusing on what’s present, not absent. It’s celebrating what’s right about you, not wrong. Now that’s attractive! And it gets your man.

DW: What separates Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love from other gay self-help books?

AP: I think my book reflects a slice of reality – the truth of the way a piece of it really is that comes from the heart. I think both my own self-disclosures and the stories of the men I share in it makes it honest, human, and wise. I think this enables my book to touch readers’ hearts and souls, as well as their minds, which allows the book to have a greater affect and inspire real change.

DW: Speaking of self-disclosure, this book is very personally revelatory. Were there any parts that were difficult for you to write or re-live?

AP: No. I’m pretty self-aware. What was challenging for me was deciding what to reveal and how much of that to reveal, and what to keep. I made my decisions based on making sure that what I shared was both on topic and benefited the reader. In other words, that my sharing wasn’t for me, but more for my message and my audience.

DW: Chapter two suggests that every gay man needs to read this book. Why do you think that?

AP: I do think every gay men – out or otherwise – can benefit from reading this book. I think that homonegativity is so strong and pervasive that even though we may not be aware of it – even though we may not even consciously subscribe to it – it can still run our lives. It works like the white noise machine I have in my office. I’m aware that it’s on when I first turn it on. But after awhile, I don’t notice it anymore. I don’t even hear it even though it’s on. I’m not aware of it again until I go to shut it off when I leave.

Similarly, we’re constantly bombarded with powerfully influential messages of how to be a “real man” in America. They are so prevalent that they just become part of us… ingrained. And we can collude, even in the subtlest of ways, to tone down our gayness and pump up our manhood to escape feminizing gay stereotypes. We deal with anti-gay sentiment from the time we’re very young. And that homophobia and heterosexism can be traumatizing.

So we learn to mute our gayness to conform in order to be more “acceptable.” This “straight acting, straight appearing,” “discreet,” straight guise that most of us do to some degree to protect ourselves, and win more love, is gay male drag. It’s buzz cuts, ink, goatees, military, athletic, or other manly uniforms, youthful gym bodies, and more. It’s gay men’s camouflage. It’s a gay decoy that says “I’m gay, but I’m not a faggot. I have value because I’m masculine.”

I’m not anti-masculine. If you’re masculine that’s fine. If you’re not, that’s fine too. A mix – fine. It’s when we take on society’s idea that to be a man means being masculine. It’s using masculinity as a cover, to not be “too flamboyant.” You don’t have to be effeminate if you’re not. You just have to be the gay man you are without any facade.

In fact, while my focus is on gay men, I think all men can benefit from reading my book. Moreover the book is for any person who’s experienced any form of oppression for it’s empowerment.

DW: You counsel gay men as your career. So on the scale of issues affecting gay men today what do you rank as the most pressing?

AP: Absolutely, the internalized homophobia we ingest from our polluted environment. Anti-gay sentiment creates shame and low esteem, which in turn drives self-destructive behavior like unsafe sex, alcohol and drug abuse, excessive dieting and exercise, as well as anxiety, depression, addiction, attitude, straight acting, and disconnection. All of that puts a wedge between gay men and comes from internalized homophobia. It disrupts how we connect with ourselves and one another. I think it impacts every facet of our lives.

DW: Allow me to play devil’s advocate. As younger gay men are learning to be very comfortable with their sexuality from a very young age, do you think the concept of identifying as ‘straight-acting’ is becoming increasingly generational? Does this shift among gay youth represent progress?

AP: I think there’s basically two camps of the young generation. One that fully embraces who they are, censoring nothing about themselves, and wanting to be recognized and treated just like anyone else – which represents progress.

However, other gay youth ditch the gay label, wanting to be seen as “normal” from that place of shame I’ve been talking about.

So whether it’s progressive, or it’s just an extension of the closet – the closet of masculinity, depends on where the youth is coming from – a place of esteem or a place of shame. We can’t forgot the staggering gay youth suicide rates as well as the rising practice of unsafe sex, new HIV infection rates, and alcohol and drug abuse among gay youth. Obviously shame and low esteem, that come from internalized homonegativity and drive these self-destructive behaviors, are still an issue. All is not yet well in paradise. While I recognize and appreciate progress, being gay is still hard.

DW: How do you feel about Los Angeles these days? Still feel like it’s not your kind of town?

AP: While LA is fine, I’m just not an LA person.

DW: Fair enough. But given your own negative experience with living in a gay mecca, what do you say to gay men about reconciling where they live with how they live? Especially if the old adage ‘Wherever you go, there you are’ holds true.

AP: It’s funny ‘cause I think we can be most like Mean Girls in our gayest places: West Hollywood, Chelsea, FireIsland, Provincetown – heck even in gay bars, clubs and organizations where we ought to treat each other more like big brothers. The level of attitude can be toxic.

Counterintuitively, some gays in less metropolitan places may in fact find more of a sense of friendliness and connectedness in their community than their counterparts in large cities who can feel extremely isolated. So I don’t think it’s about where you live at all. We have an issue of disconnect in the gay men’s community that needs to be addressed and it transcends location.

For more information about Angelo Pezzote or his new book Straight Acting: Gay Men, Masculinity and Finding True Love, visitwww.AskAngelo.com.

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