My Name Is Peter

Bottom line – Belinda Carlisle is very cool.  Please take a look at the video message she’s recorded in support of marriage equality in Maine and across the country.  As she says in the PSA, she recorded the video “not as a musician or public figure, but as a Mom.”  She continues, “My son James is gay, and I want him and every other gay person out there to have the same opportunities and rights that I’ve had in life.”

She is absolutely right.  We must win the vote next month in Maine.  A win in Maine will send the message to our elected officials that the tide has turned, “that public opinion is with us, and it is time for Federal action.”

Please go to PROTECTMAINEEQUALITY.ORG to lend your support!

In case you have not had a chance to read Oliver’s hilarious account of his trip to Las Vegas to see Mariah Carey, you must read it!

Onstage meltdown – check
Possible pregnancy – check
Train wreck of a show – check

Quite a tale!

Kylie was fantastic!  Amazing!  There was not a minute of her show that I didn’t love.  This is how she entered…

Pretty incredible, right?

The thing is I have always liked Kylie, but I’ve never really been a die hard fan.  A Kylie gay, if you will.  My friend Oliver, however, is absolutely a Kylie gay.  He, his friend Davinia, my friend Brady and I all went together.  But I digress.

Kylie’s show was amazing, and her stage presence was undeniable.  While she was without a doubt a powerful presence and force to be reckoned with even in front of over 17,000 people, she was at the same time humble, grateful, and clearly in awe of her surroundings.

She knew her audience, too, which was the largest assembly of gay men I have seen outside of a gay pride parade.  I think there may have been 10 women there.  Total.

At one point, there were male dancers in Speedos taking showers onstage, and then they assembled beneath her so that she could walk on their hands.  Notice the shower on the right…

The show itself was an incredible spectacle of light, sound, costume, video, theatrics and general innovation.  The word ‘thrilling’ comes to mind.

Still, Kylie never once pretended to be anything she is not.  For the dance routines, her songs were layered with backing tracks for her to sing over.  And at times she would stop singing and yell, “Los Angeles!” or even talk over the music, engaging the audience, sure, but also letting us know that she knows exactly who she is.  She, like us, was there to have a great time.

But for me what truly set her apart from the pack was that she could actually have fun and be spontaneous with the audience.  She could literally step out of the routine, have an impromptu moment with the crowd and walk right back into the performance without missing a beat.

And so I left The Hollywood Bowl a huge Kylie fan.  She won me over.  I loved all her songs, and the staging was beyond.  I left there a happier, more hopeful and joyous Peter, which is, I think, how you know you’ve just seen a true superstar.

So excited. This is our view! More to come…

Check it.

While on the treadmill this morning, running up my 15 incline, I got to thinking. I have been taking Barry’s Bootcamp class for about a year and a half now. In case you haven’t had the pleasure, Barry’s Bootcamp is a totally crazy, insane ride of a workout that would give pause to even the most ardent of masochists. And yet, every morning like clockwork, Barry packs novices and fitness nuts alike into his West Hollywood location for an hour of sweat-filled abuse like you have never imagined. He has three classes Monday through Friday: 5 AM, 6:30 AM, and 8 AM. Everyday. Yes, even on holidays.

But there is something very special about Barry. Barry genuinely cares for each and every person who walks through his door with unparalleled kindness and sincerity. Sure, he yells at you and pushes you beyond what you thought humanly possible, but that’s what you are paying for! Still, the reason I believe people keep coming back day after day, week after week, year after year is because the idea is simple. You get out what you put in. No gimmicks, no unkept promises. Just hardcore sweat that equals results. And the fact that Barry is there everyday with the same caring enthusiasm. He notices how you are changing. He takes pride in the fact that even though yesterday you couldn’t quite make a 7 minute mile, today you managed to clock in at 6:57.

For me, personally, Barry’s class has changed my life. It transformed my body from the inside out. It gave me back a core strength I haven’t had since high school. But most importantly, it helped to restore my confidence in my ability to make it through life everyday. I know that if f I can survive Barry’s class first thing in the morning without vomiting, then the rest of my day is probably going to be all right.

Fantastic!

I am sorry I haven’t written for a while. Things have been really crazy in Peter’s world these past couple of weeks…

But I wanted to write about something I saw this week that really struck me. I DVR’d Oprah’s interview with Whitney Houston, which aired Monday and Tuesday… in case you live on Mars and didn’t happen to see the ads.

At first, I have to admit, I tuned in, as my friend Amy used to say, for the same reason people slow down on the freeway to look at a car crash. It was more of a morbid fascination than a genuine interest in what had kept Whitney away for seven years. And from the tone of the ads, you would have thought Oprah was boarding the space shuttle to fly to the moon to interview Whitney. Thus, my curiosity was piqued.

The first day, I was sort of stunned by Whitney’s candor. I mean, she really went for it, leaving very little to the imagination. She described the train wreck that her life became in vivid detail. And whenever anything was unclear, Oprah translated and filled in the gaps. It was incredibly uncomfortable for me to watch someone I had grown to know and love as one of the most poised, graceful and dignified entertainers of all time truly bare her soul with no holds barred on national television.

It was not until the second interview that I could actually appreciate what she was saying. It was then that I began to see the icon we call WHITNEY HOUSTON as a human being. Not the slick media creation of the 80’s and 90’s. Not the cartoon caricature we witnessed on Being Bobby Brown. Just a very real human being who was doing the best she could to pull her life together after coming to terms with addiction and an abusive marriage.

I realized that it is very easy for us as human beings to stand in judgment of others – especially someone as seemingly inaccessible as Whitney Houston. “How could she destroy herself like that?” we asked. “If I could sing like that and had that much money and fame, I would never let that happen to me. Her life was so perfect, and she just threw it all away,” we told ourselves.

And yet, Whitney described a very different reality. A reality in which her life was never her own, and the pressures of being WHITNEY HOUSTON became nearly unbearable. A reality in which the more success she achieved, the more intimated, afraid, and unworthy she felt. A reality in which her husband’s insecurity and envy drove her to sacrifice herself for his security. And ultimately a world in which she felt very much alone and isolated, no longer sure of who she was and therefore no longer able to express herself.

Watching Whitney talk about her life, I was surprised to find that I truly identified with her on a human level. I finally saw that each of us, no matter who we are, must achieve a state of balance in our own lives, no matter what our circumstances. If we are not prepared for what life throws our way – even if it is extraordinary, mind-boggling success – than we are in for a bumpy ride. For so many us, drugs and alcohol became a way of dealing with a life that was out of balance. For others, shopping, gambling, or even work can serve as unhealthy counterweights to the crazy seesaws we ride everyday.

We all need friends in whom we can confide. We all need to find some form of spirituality that brings us a sense of peace as well as nourishes our soul. We all need to find ways to love ourselves a little more everyday. And we all need to develop a sense of individual purpose along with a sense that we are of service in the world. These, in my experience, are the basics of achieving balance in one’s life. Without these basics, we are forced to find destructive alternatives to numb ourselves. But when we live our lives holding these tenets sacred, the road before us remains full of hope and promise.

One of my favorites:

The handsome young English lad to the right is Oliver. He is awesome, a great friend, and I can’t imagine my life without him in it. He also happens to be a manager. And not just any kind of manager. A truly great manager.

An avid music lover and fan of all kinds of music, Oliver is a music manager. And what makes him truly great is that he actually cares about his clients, about their work, about their careers, and about the music industry in general.

Sure, if you were to ask your average agents or managers in any field in Los Angeles about their work, they would tell you how much they love their clients, how much they love what they do, how they live to hear great music or watch great films, or read great books or scripts. But most would be equivocating… at least to some degree.

But Oliver is different. You see, he works with a range of artists – from well-known, hugely successful acts, to younger, unsigned and yet extraordinarily talented performers just breaking into the mainstream. It is with the younger, unsigned artists that Oliver truly shows how good, caring and conscientious he is.

Any agent or manager with a major client is going to spend a great deal of time servicing that client. Oliver is no exception. But what separates him from the rest of of the pack is that he actually spends a great deal of his own time working with his newer, unproven clients. He will leave work and spend nights and weekends shooting videos for these acts. As in he holds the camera. He talks to his acts everyday, encouraging them, guiding them, planning with them, giving them notes on new music and ideas on new looks. Oliver even edits videos and reels together, posts them to youtube and dailymotion, and designs and refines posters and artwork.

He is a creative jack of all trades – an artist himself, and one of the hardest working and most passionate people I know.

And that is why Oliver is truly great at what he does, and why people love to work with him. And that is also one of the many reasons I love him.

Check out Fan III – one of his clients – and one of my favorites!

A couple of days ago, I was really moved by this ad from Equality Maine. What a wonderful, positive, clear, truthful and simple message! Well done, Equality Maine! Thank you for finally putting a very real and human face on a very real and human issue.

After watching the ad, I thought back to the No On 8 movement here in California, which was in full swing about a year ago. All the effort, the millions of dollars spent, and the calculated messaging on both sides, led only to anger, misunderstanding, resentment and fear. Ironically, it wasn’t until the sad day that Prop 8 passed that the gay community really banded together as one. We joined each other in the streets as a community to march peacefully and let our voices be heard. We finally had the courage to abandon the careful façade that focus groups and highly-paid PR firms asked us to adopt to avoid “scaring” conservative voters. We finally stood up and showed the world that we were real people with real lives, real loves, and real values.

During the fight against Prop 8 and in the days following its passing, I grew increasingly angry and saddened. What right did these people have to tell me how to live my life? I wasn’t making road trips to their communities and holding up signs, or trying to legislate their lives! I took everything personally. The proponents of Prop 8 told lies and half truths. Some of them even went so far as to go door to door and use the confusing Prop 8 language to mislead bewilders voters, who were actually against Prop 8, into voting in favor of it. Their fear mongering and anger seemed to know no bounds. Their Christian minds appeared to have made an unspoken deal with the devil that the end would justify the means.

I was horrified. After all, this was the 21st Century! I wanted those awful, disgusting people to be put in their place. I wanted them to be embarrassed and shunned by their communities. I wanted justice and retribution, and yet I saw none. The world seemed to quietly return to business as usual after we had been hung out to dry.

And now, I have a very different outlook. I realized something after watching the Equality Maine ad. I looked again at these angry, bigoted, fearful people screaming at the top of their lungs to protect “traditional marriage” in this country. They have, in reality, walled themselves into their own personal hell. They have become so limited and stunted by their fears and their contempt that I pity them. After all, they’ve decided to trade love for hate, tolerance for fear, and in their judgment of others, have reaped judgment unto themselves. What really have they gained?

The world is growing and changing constantly. We as human beings must grow and change along with it, or we will be left behind. Forget marriage being “redefined.” The world redefines itself every moment of every day. As citizens of the world, we are in a state of flux. There is only one constant in our lives, and that constant is Love. Marriage is simply about love. Two people wanting to declare their love for one another. Instead of looking at Marriage Equality as a redefinition of marriage for the few, why not look at it as a means of expanding a simple and profound blessing for the many?

I love her. Go ahead. Watch this and try not to smile. I dare you.