What’s Next Now

Maintaining the balance between artistic integrity and commercial concerns is no mean feat, but it’s a challenge that Jason LeBlond and Ves Pitts, the entrepreneurs behind the artist representation and consulting company Ignite, are happy to take on. continue reading »

What came first, the band or the studio track? In today’s producer-run music biz, that line gets blurrier by the hour. And so it was for Sean Bumgarner, best known as DJ Sean B, one of the creative forces behind the nightlife phenomenon known as Spank. “[Best Mate] was formed as a way to perform tracks from a studio project I started in 2008,” he explains. “Now the band and live performance is finding its way back into the studio, influencing my music writing and developing parts for tracks we have been playing.” continue reading »

With the onslaught of new cabaret acts fronted by burgeoning gay Broadway stars, gay Glee-wannabes and gay musical-theater fanatics it’s hard to be gay and stand out in the crowd. But for geek-ish musicians Nicholas Williams and Micah Bucey, going gay was the only thing to do with their Smothers Brothers-influenced cabaret act. “Our goal is to take over the world through show tunes, so I can’t imagine calling ourselves anything else,” declares the rubber-faced Bucey, 30, who by day is studying for his Masters of Divinity degree at New York Theological Seminary. So with tongue firmly planted in cheek they named their band The Gay Agenda (ThatGayAgendaBand.WordPress.com) and have been performing their snarky original songs and mini-musicals (covering everything from Disney to the Virgin Mary) in sold-out shows at La MaMa ETC, Joe’s Pub and the Players Loft for the past two years. continue reading »

With any hot new tech trend comes imitators, brands that take an original idea a step further and occasionally even surpass it. Friendster begat MySpace begat Facebook. Blu-ray improved upon the possibilities of DVD. And now British entrepreneur David Rickhuss has delivered Qrushr (Qrushr.com), his next-level GPS-based gay social networking app that takes the Grindr formula to the next level. Any ’mo with an iPhone—and a libido—has succumbed to the phenomenon that is Grindr (Next Magazine even investigated the trend back in September) but the app has significant limitations, and that is where Qrushr hopes to—well—crush the competition. “Qrushr has over 12 world-first technologies built into it,” says Rickhuss, 38. “Other apps do radar and that’s it, but Qrushr does that standing on its head and is far more reliable.” continue reading »

Through all the glitter, rainbow flags, parties and booze it is easy to forget that the Gay Pride March is actually a protest as much as it is a celebration. That is why several fed-up activists—including Jamie McGonnigal, Lt. Dan Choi, Robin McGehee and Alan L. Bounville—decided to remind New Yorkers that the fight is not yet over. They have created Taking Back Pride (TakeBackPride.org), a grassroots campaign to bring the political agenda back to Pride. continue reading »

It’s shocking to think that no in-depth documentary film has been made about the Stonewall riots, but it’s true. “There is a generation of people—gay and straight—who don’t know what Stonewall meant. Yet they [know] about Rosa Parks and other important historical civil rights moments,” admits New York filmmaker Kate Davis, who along with her life and business partner, David Heilbroner, directed Stonewall Uprising (June 16–29 at Film Forum). “It’s really about time that this little-known chapter of American history is told.” continue reading »

Sure, social networking has changed the way we communicate, but for those who have trouble hearing or speaking in the first place, social networking offers them whole new world. This potential in communication inspired out web developer Michael Bamford, along with film producer Mich Lyon, to create Frisky Hands, a social networking website specifically aimed at the gay deaf community. “After meeting Martin Ritchie [of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency fame] we came to understand the unique isolation many hearing-impaired members of the LGBTQ community face,” says Bamford, 35. “We went looking for a social networking site focused on the hearing-impaired LGBTQ community [but] none existed. [We were] determined that these friends deserved a whole lot better.” continue reading »