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Party With Impact by Positive Impact Health Centers

Positive Impact Health Centers and their signature fundraiser, Party With Impact!, is always something different. They have done parties but also more unconventional events like concerts and auctions. This year, it’s a comedy show featuring Emmy-nominated stand-up comic Sam Jay, known from HBO, and her comedy special on Netflix.

To realize that we are all in for a very special treat at the Party With Impact! Starring Sam Jay, we only have to look at her incredible bio.

Sam Jay is an Emmy-nominated writer (Saturday Night Live) and can currently be seen on HBO’s Pause with Sam Jay, a weekly late-night series where she serves as host and executive producer. The show is now in production for its second season. Next, she will be on the upcoming Peacock series, Bust Down.

In 2020, she debuted her first Netflix one-hour stand-up special, Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning, after having debuted on Netflix’s The Comedy Lineup in 2019.

In 2018, Sam wrote for The 70th Primetime Emmy Awards and the MTV Movie & TV Awards. Sam’s 2018 TV credits include a recurring role on TV Land’s Nobodies and a guest star in Season 5 of Comedy Central’s Broad City.

In 2017, Sam stood out in the Just For Laughs: New Faces. She was the host of Ricking Morty, the Rick and Morty post-show on Adult Swim, and she was a cast member of MTV’s

SafeWord. Sam made her late-night television debut on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and her half-hour stand-up Comedy Central Presents premiered in 2017 to rave reviews.

Sam was named as one of Variety’s 10 Comics to Watch for 2018 and Comedy Central Comics to Watch in 2015 and has performed internationally at comedy clubs and festivals, including the Vodafone Dublin Comedy Festival, Bumbershoot Festival, 208 Comedy Festival, New York Comedy Festival, Portland’s Bridgetown Festival, The Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival, and Boston’s Women In Comedy Festival, among others.

Come and experience Sam Jay in person at the Party With Impact!

What:  Party With Impact! – a comedy show fundraiser for Positive Impact Health Centers

When:  December 2, 2022, 8 pm

Where: Variety Playhouse. Tickets are at variety-playhouse.com.

Helix Studios Introduces Kai Taylor

By John Stein Photos: Alejandro Palomares Photos courtesy of Helix Studios

With his sultry eyes and 26-inch waist, Kai Taylor has quickly become one of the break-out stars from the new crop of guys at Helix Studios. The twenty-year-old was born in Georgia and raised in Arizona by his single mom. He excelled in sports, especially gymnastics, and was only thirteen when he came out to his family and close friends. Kai dealt with his fair share of homophobia through the years, especially from the administration at the Christian school he was attending, but he says it became less of a problem when he became captain of his school’s cheer team.  “People thought I was cool ’cause I could do flips,” he laughs. The irony is they still do. We spoke with Kai from his home.

How was your childhood?

I really enjoyed my early childhood. I was an army brat. While my mom was deployed in Iraq, my grandparents took care of my brothers and me, and they were amazing. We were always playing outside in nature, messing around with bugs, and setting stuff on fire. It was pretty solid! When my mom returned, she showered us with gifts and delicious treats. She owns a bakery now, so her cakes were always  Cake Boss level.

Living in small-town Arizona, how were you able to come out at 13?

I came out to my best friends; first, kids I had known since 4th grade. I was transferring schools, and I thought I might not ever see them again. They were incredibly supportive, and we remained inseparable for years with sleepovers, late-night phone calls, and camping trips.

Was your mom supportive?

Somewhat. I think my mom always knew. I mean, I’d ask for Barbies and Bratz for Christmas! I think she was more scared for me than anything else. She didn’t exactly know how to help me.

When did you start dating?

I started dating at fifteen. I met my first boyfriend through Facebook. He lived like an hour and a half away. I met my second boyfriend off Grindr four months after I turned eighteen, but I don’t claim his weird ass.

What led to your decision to explore a career in the adult film industry?

I have dreamed of being a porn star since I was sixteen years old! I started my freshman year of university during the pandemic, and I wasn’t having fun or doing well mentally. I realized I didn’t want my early twenties focused on academics or getting a degree. I needed to shake things up.

How did you land at Helix Studios?

I ask myself that very question every day! I have to pinch myself to believe I’m really here.

Did you specifically request for your first scene to be with studio favorite Josh Brady?

I didn’t ask; I just got very, very, very lucky!

Who are you most excited about shooting with next?

I’m honestly not sure who I wanna shoot with next. If there’s one Helix model I  wish I could have shot with, it would be Blake Mitchell. He was my one favorite porn star for so long. It blows my mind that I work at the same studio he did!

What do you envision for your adult career with Helix Studios?

Shooting more short films and movies! I have the most fun on set with everyone. I love acting and bringing erotic stories to life. I hope to do more!

In three words, what makes you stand out from the rest of the Helix crew?

My off-the-wall personality, my solid dance moves, and my laugh.

How will you put your gymnastics training to work at Helix Studios?

I think it’d be really cool to do a short film about a cheerleader and a football jock. I could show off some tricks I have up my sleeve, in and out of the bedroom.

Who is the love of your life?

I haven’t met him yet! Hopefully, he’s someone tall and hung that makes me laugh and loves me for the entirety of who I am.

What is something fans would be surprised to learn about you? I’m fluent in Spanish.

What’s left to do on your bucket list?

Walk in NYC, Los Angeles, and Paris Fashion Week!

You want to be a fashion model?

In five years, I see myself financially and somewhat emotionally stable, living in a New York City apartment, and pursuing acting, music, and modeling.

Who is your celeb crush?

This isn’t really a “crush,” but I am a huge Taylor Swift fan. Her music and storytelling have touched me ever since I was nine years old. I learned so much about life from her art and work.

As a young guy living life on his own terms, what is your message to fans?

As long as it’s not hurting anyone else, you can literally do whatever you wanna do in this life. If you invest, put in the work, and trust in the universe, there’s literally nothing in this world you can’t do.

Learn more about Kai at Helixstudios.com

Tár Centers a Staggering Lesbian Success Story. But Whose Success Is It?

By George Elkind

In writer-director Todd Field’s latest film, “Tár,” there’s a sense of intoxication in play, an air of fascination in the treatment of his leading character as a kind of monument — albeit one shadowed with foreboding.

The film introduces Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár, a contemporary classical conductor and composer at a career high, soon to restage Mahler’s fifth symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic; given that we encounter her at the absolute top of the heap, it’s unclear how much higher her star could rise.

From the artful silhouettes of Lydia’s suits to her collection of fine books and records to her marriage to Sharon, her orchestra’s first violinist (played by the brilliant German actress Nina Hoss), her life seems to unfold in a kind of walled garden appointed with grand, well-chosen features. Even as the film renders her career achievements as monumental — so much so that her status as an EGOT is tossed off as an aside — the matter of her lesbianism is framed both in her words and the film’s portrayal quite casually, making the question of what being lesbian means to Tár (and to “Tár”) as much a mystery as the nature of the dizzying array of works she must have scored.  Blanchett, probably known best to queer audiences for her starring role opposite Rooney Mara in Todd Haynes’ 2015 romantic drama “Carol,” recently told Variety that the character’s lesbian status is “not the headline or the issue,” adding that she admired the role’s matter-offact treatment. And Blanchett’s right, at least about that casualness: Lydia’s life as a lesbian, her position as a prominent woman in a maledominated field, and her mothering of a daughter, Petra, are all treated as natural facts of her life. Instead of these features serving as primary features of her identity, her life seems defined by her discipline, privilege and prowess; she expresses skepticism even of her gender having impacted her career, and at one point suggests scuttling the identity-based parameters of a charitable fellowship aimed at supporting female musicians. A girlboss who’s transcended making a fuss about it, she luxuriates in a position of power countless women could only dream of.

And they do. For the women in the field who surround her — none enjoying anywhere near

her level of celebrity — Lydia’s way of being provides a tantalizing spectacle, arousing a sense of professional aspiration that becomes bound up in more traditionally charged forms of desire. And as the film progresses, the feeling only grows. For Lydia’s assistant Francesca (played with a watchful reticence by Noémie Merlant, just as splendid as in “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), Lydia’s position — as her boss, a key gatekeeper and a model for her own wants — stands as a defining feature of her life. For Francesca, and for others, and especially queer women, Lydia’s power — alongside, surely, her charisma and her craft — are understood to generate both an attractive and a repellent charge.

But it’s more than incidental that Lydia knows and plays on this, bringing the movie to a place of meditation, as she barrels into a web of scandals, on what female power means. For Lydia is a kind of womanizer, an egocentric and casual abuser in more than one classic male sense, treating men and women alike who surround her as disposable, and all but the same — even if the nature of her exact misdeeds are something the film is often guarded about.

With its rash of #MeToo-style allegations of professional misconduct eventually ensnaring its protagonist, “Tár” makes itself contemporary through its coy engagement with the histrionic dramas of “cancellation,” sure — but especially through its casual treatment of Lydia’s lesbian identity. (In this, a German setting surely helps). With Lydia as the film’s guiding force and everflexing primary subject — as well as the object of its supporting cast’s desires and fears — treatment of the character shows her holding power flippantly enough to harbor the easy potential to abuse it. Considering this, Field and Blanchett’s work on the character feels like something that wouldn’t have been possible even a handful of years ago.

Treating identity not as magical but as a factor which could be either formative or not in one’s life, the movie’s queer depiction is torn between admiration and fear of its leading character’s charisma and accomplishments. But what it’s not, to its credit, is congratulatory toward her, knowing her to possess not just a queer identity but to have levels of wealth and white privilege so staggering as to be, for most LGBTQ+ people, beyond imagination. Lydia, by contrast, can’t seem to even dream of not having those resources — and appears to believe they’re destined to be hers whatever she might do. It’ll be something to look forward to, the film seems to say, when a broader range of people can even be imagined to enjoy the same varieties of power and acclaim.

7 Tips To Conquer Thanksgiving

By Mikkel Hyldebrandt

This holiday season is here, and with that your fair share of family gatherings. Sure, they can be filled with affection and precious moments, but it is also somehow the perfect environment for family drama. Who hasn’t experienced those judgmental questions, passive-aggressive comments, and barely concealed eyerolls? So, here are seven tips that will help you conquer the Thanksgiving family gathering (and those after it!).

Offer to Help

Putting on a Thanksgiving feast is a lot of work, so make yourself useful with the preparation, serving, and clean-up. It’s a great way to make your mom happy, impress your relatives, and keep yourself busy rather than hearing about your uncle Jerry’s fishing trip (again). You may need to convince the host to help, but if you insist, you’ll be polishing silverware and avoiding most your relatives in no time.

Pass On Cocktails

This may seem counter-intuitive, since you’ll probably want to start drinking the moment you arrive at the gathering. Instead have a cocktail at the beginning and a glass of wine during dinner, and leave the oversharing and (un) popular political opinions to your relatives.

Play Guncle

Give yourself a break from dealing with adult drama to spend time with the children at the family function. Whether you’ll be introduced to all newest toys, will be playing outside, or will be watching a kids’ movie, you won’t be interrogated about your career moves or dating life.

A Little Deflection Prep

Even though there are thousands of appropriate topics that can be discussed at Thanksgiving, somehow it is always the explosive ones that people have the urge to touch on. Prepare yourself with a few deflective answers to defuse potential hot topics. For example, when Uncle Barry discloses how he really feels about the

president, just acknowledge that’s how he feels and then compliment his watch and ask where he got it.

Bring a Friend

Bringing a friend has many advantages if you know that drama is bound be served along with the turkey and marshmallow salad. You have a ride-and-die who you can exchange looks with and secretly judge Aunt Debbie’s new hairstyle with. Bringing an outsider may also improve your family’s behavior overall, so the meal will be conducted somewhat civilized.

Team Up with a Like-Minded Relative

You may already know who of your relatives will also have to go to the back porch to take deep breaths during dinner. Buddy up and promise each other that you’ll look out for each other; like rescuing each other from pestering relatives.

Get Out and Go Out

After spending all that time with your relatives, a good counterbalance is to meet up with your friends for a night out to decompress. Prepare an exit strategy ahead of time, like taking home an elderly relative earlier in the evening, and then go meet your friends to debrief all the drama. If you the same night is impossible, arrange for a get together in the days after to immerse yourself in a sense of normalcy again.

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Thanksgiving Weekend

@ The Hideaway | November 23-27

The Hideaway has you covered all Thanksgiving weekend long starting with Drumstick Beats Wednesday night and continuing with karaoke, Flannel Friday, and a toy drive benefitting For The Kid.

Holiday Kick Off!

@ Mary’s | November 25, 9 pm

It’s that moment we have been waiting for to kick off our holiday season: the lighting of Mary’s and letting the Baby Jeezus drop into his comfy manger. $5 entry.

Dance Anthems with DJ David Knapp

@ The Heretic November 25, 10 pm – 3 am

Dance Anthems of the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s, 2010, and today with legendary DJ David Knapp spinning all the best club hits of all time.

Gear After Dark

@ The Atlanta Eagle| November 26, 9 pm

If you feel like stuffing more than a turkey, gear up and head out to the Eagle to go long and hard into the night. All gear types welcome.

ICONIC Dance Party

@ The Basement

November 26, 10 pm – 3 am

From the people behind The Gaga Ball, Hot Mess, Heyday, and Atlanta Disco Society, Iconic will feature six iconic artists each event and play their biggest for a night like nothing else.

Celebrate Britney’s Bday w/ Derrick Barry!

@ Guac y Margys Midtown

December 2, 4-10 pm

What better way to celebrate our fave pop star’s birthday than with Derrick Barry (and special guest Nebraska!). Tickets at Eventbrite.

Party With Impact

@ Variety Playhouse | December 2, 8 pm

Join Positive Impact Health Centers for a night of comedy with Sam Jay and Ian Aber., who are helping raise money for HIV care and LGBTQ healthcare in Atlanta.

A Very Mariah Holiday Drag Brunch

@ Kenny’s Alley | December 3, 1-3:30 pm

I don’t want a lot for Xmas – except for brunch with a side of drag queens! Kick off the holidays with your friends & family at this very special Mariah Carey Holiday inspired drag brunch.

Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus 42nd Annual Holiday Concert

@ The Cathedral of St. Philip

December 3, 6 pm

The AGMC is returning to The Cathedral of St. Philip with their beautiful holiday show that will take the audience on a journey through laughter, tears, goosebumps, and holiday nostalgia. Tickets at voiceofnote. org/agmc/.

Gag the Grinch

@ The Hideaway

December 3, 8 pm – 12 am

The boys of More To Love are putting on another Gag The Grinch event this – and this time even gaggier! Come out, get gagged and donate money or toys to For The Kid In All Of Us.

Family Portraits with Krampus

@ Junkman’s Daughter

December 4, 1-4 pm

Krampus is back for your family Holiday 2022 Portraits! All donations will benefit the Upbeat Foundation for Musicians. First come, first serve!

My friend and I always have a good time; we hang out all the time because neither of us is in a relationship right now. The other day we were watching a show, and suddenly, he joked that he had a boner. Before I knew it, we were having really good sex on the couch. Afterward, we dressed and watched the show as if nothing had happened. But I’ve been thinking: is he into me? Or is this just a friends-with-benefits thing?

Your first question should be, are you into him? Be cause if you are this could be a pleasant develop ment to things. You may have missed signs from him and yourself that this is a thing. If not, perhaps you are fortunate to hit that friends-with-ben efits zone where there’s a mutual attraction but not an emotional connection in terms of being in a relationship. Regardless, tread carefully be cause it’s a fine line between having things de velop romantically and complicating a friendship with sex.