Sunday, January 31, 2010

An Ode to Cholent

An Ode to Cholent 
by Eyal Feldman

When you find yourself chilling on a Wintery day.
When outdoors it is way too frigid to play.
A yiddish stew you should prepare to cook that day.
Meat and Potatoes with sugar and salt.
A lunch that commands all the frost to a halt.
Eat it and love it much comfort and joy.
Guaranteed that this Cholent will make you say Oy!

Here is a photo of a Cholent, traditional Jewish sabbath stew.
I love it so much, I wrote a poem today about it.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Introducing Eyal Feldman The Man Behind The Boy Butter Lubrication Empire


At 24 years of age, young, hot New York entrepreneur Eyal Feldman set out to create a personal male lubricant that would be as slick and long-lasting as silicon-based lubricants and clean up as easily as those that are water-based.
     He found his answer in a vegetable oil and silicone fusion-based product he termed Boy Butter. Becoming an instant hit, Boy Butter became an instant hit  gaining mainstream popularity, and earning the brand coverage in places such as Saturday Night Live, Tonight Show with Jay Leno, MadTV, Comedy Central’s Daily Show and Talk Soup on E!.
Seven years later, Boy Butter  continues a one-man show, with Eyal still at the helm with the product now sold in countless brick-and-mortar and online retail stores, including Walgreens and Amazon.com. Not only the creator Eyal is also the face of the product, appearing in most of Boy Butter’s ads and appearing frequently on many radio outlets.
Offering close to 10 different products which include the hugely popular Boy Butter Extreme desensitizing lubricant and You’ll Never Know it Isn’t Boy Butter, which is condom-safe. In addition to lubricant, the brand has also  just released a new male enhancement pill, Bonerz, as well a  female-friendly lubricant.
But enough about what Boy Butter is, what we want to know is about the man behind this amazing empire and what motivated him to get to where his is today.
You first founded Boy Butter when you were 24 years old, quite an accomplishment for someone so young! What gave you the drive to start your own business?
Ever since I graduated college I felt I wanted to go into business. My father is an entrepreneur, and I wanted to work for myself too. Being my own boss is amazing. Along with the necessary discipline and self-improvement, there is also the payoff of financial freedom, liberty, and my business becomes a vehicle for bettering my life.
Boy Butter has now gone on to become a major player in the personal lubricant industry, having appeared on major TV shows, such as Saturday Night Live and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. When did you first realize the brand had become a household name? How did you feel?
I knew from the first day that I uttered the name “Boy Butter” that it would be a success, because the name is hilarious and held such great potential for the market. Boy Butter can be both a novelty product and a seriously good and useful product for personal use. It fulfills so many needs for so many, especially gay men. People love the name, and as soon as you make a customer smile or laugh, a sale will soon follow. I produce an excellent product that is the perfect combination of good marketing, novelty and utility. I feel ecstatic about Boy Butter. It is endless with legs and extensions, and will always be a fun product to deal with, on so many levels.
There was also a need to resurrect cream-form lubricants from the 1970s and early 80s which were shelved due to not being latex-safe. Since creams traditionally are oil-based and “Safe Sex” became necessary, the market became latex-safe and water-based lubricant dominant.

What makes Boy Butter stand out from other lubricant brands on the market today?
Boy Butter stands out in several ways. Firstly, we present Boy Butter Lubricants in non-sexual food type packaging, because it disarms any sexual squeamishness in people and makes it a true novelty product fit for the best gag gift or bedroom necessity. Secondly, in the sense of the actual lubricant itself, Boy Butter Lubricants comes in a cream form. We have both oil-based (Original Boy Butter) and water-based styles (You’ll Never Know it Isn’t Boy Butter, the first ever stable water-based and latex-safe cream lubricant we invented in late-2006), which are totally latex and vaginally safe; a first with cream lubricants. I love creams best because they last longer than water-based lubricants, feel better on the skin and best of all wash off with water alone. The easy clean up means no more “shame stains” on surfaces or fabrics that are associated with overpowering and messy silicone lubricants.
Boy Butter’s consistency is much different from other brands — it is creamy, and just as the title describes, like butter. What benefit do those who use Boy Butter gain from using a lubricant with this type of texture and viscosity?
Creams can last almost as long as silicone lubricants, feel more natural and wash off as easy as any water based lubricant. It has all the benefits without any of the drawbacks from other lubricants on the market.

You now have quite a few different lines, including a warming lubricant, an extreme desensitizing liquid, a female-friendly lubricant called Lucky, and variations of most of those, which are water-based, called H2O. How often do you released new lines, and what is your most popular line to date?
We come out with new products or sizes every six months to a year. To date we have almost 30 different products, sizes and styles. Our most popular product is still the Original 16-ounce Boy Butter, the first product I ever came out with. But the desensitizing is a close second and third in popularity. People love the desensitizing for many reasons: they either want to increase the comfort associated with sexual penetration or they simply want to combat the ill and annoying effects of premature ejaculation.

Boy Butter also just released a product called Bonerz, which is a male enhancement pill. What gave you the inspiration to put out a non-lubricant product? Do you feel it detracts from the focus of what your brand is known for, or do you think it helps?
No not at all. I love Boy Butter Bonerz. It is a non-lubricant, which enhances our lubricant products, because male enhancement goes hand-in-hand, pun intended, with lubricant use. I’ll tell you, since the advent of male enhancement products like Viagra back in 1999, it revolutionized and quadrupled the personal lubricant industry, causing a real need to deal with all that extra friction.
What does a gay male consumer look for in a lubricant, that is different from a straight male? Or is it the same across the board?
Gay men usually will go for a longer-lasting product and are more open to varied types of lubricants, and straight men generally look for lubricants that are safe to use with women. Women self-lubricate so that alleviates much of the need for lubricants for straight men.

Why did you decide to start a line called Lucky, that caters to a woman’s needs? How do you feel about older people using your product? What made you choose that specific name?
When we created the first cream lubricant that was water-based, it became the first cream lubricant that women could use vaginally. Some older women do not lubricate sufficiently and really need long-lasting lubricants. I decided to expand to that market and I thought Lucky was a simple and clear name. Older people are the fastest growing segment of the population that is becoming more sexually active and like I said, previously Viagra changed the world and created so many more people with personal lubricant needs that did not exist before, I wanted to reach them.
If you could pick three celebrity spokesmen for your brand, who would you pick?
Well, Kathy Griffin because she is so gay friendly, Mel Gibson because he creates so much friction, and Lady Gaga because she is the bee’s knees.
What can loyal Boy Butter users expect to see from the brand next?
I think that a pink-labeled girl version of Boy Butter called Boy Butter for Girls is due next.
Hedda Lettuce is so much fun to watch when she does commercials for Boy Butter. MMM MOMMY! Will she be doing any more?
Oh absolutely! We love Hedda Lettuce because, like Boy Butter, she is the fusion of beauty and novelty.
What is your personal favorite Boy Butter product?
I love Boy Butter original because it makes masturbation and sex feel incredible.

Holocaust Remembrance Day - A notable excerpt

Why was world silent?

The Polish President Lech Kaczynski recounted the atrocities that took place in Auschwitz since July 1940. "Jews were murdered simply because they were Jews. Others were murdered because they were Polish or Russian,"

"If this is what happened, it could happen again in the future," the Polish president warned.

"This is why remembering is so important. We must teach the truth, a truth not everyone will like, but the truth about what happened. What happened here wasn't a chain of criminal events, it was something well-organized by a state."

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who spoke after the president, said, "We ask why the world was silent. Why did the world allow this to happen?"

He said people should never have to feel helpless. "A person should never be a number. No one should have to wear a striped outfit or be tortured until the end of his life," he added.

To read the whole article click here.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Boy Butter CEO involved in apparent Drive-By

Eyal Feldman the owner of Boy Butter Lubricants was caught on video in what appears to be an apparent Boy Butter drive-by.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Just back from Vacation Station

 
This was our cruise ship from the port in Labadee Haiti.

Dear Everyone:

      You all must forgive my lack of communication this week, I am back from one of the best vacations I have ever taken. Brendan and I were away on a floating paradise, the Royal Caribbean's Liberty of the Seas, which is the world's second biggest cruise ship with a capacity of 4370 passengers and 1300 crew. The Atlantis Cruises organized The Liberty Cruise which is the largest gay cruise in the world, this year with almost 3000 of the gayest people you have ever seen. This was a great experience and we met and made a bunch of new friends, everyone was in a good mood, and the energy of ship was incredibly positive and relaxing.
           Our Luxury Liner stopped in Labadee, Haiti, Grand Caymen, Cozumel and back to the point of origin in Miami Florida. For 7 days we ate, danced, snorkeled, swam, partied, laughed, ate some more, and did I mention eat?  There was so much entertainment every night, including a special surprise guest comedy show with Rosanne Barr, and she was hilarious. It was high class heaven on the high seas. To anyone like me who has never done a cruise before, I highly suggest you go as soon as you can. I am including pictures and videos from our cruise highlights below

Out Cruise Liner, The Liberty of the Seas.
                                       
Eyal at Grand Cayman
                                                    
The 90's Party on Thursday, so fun and this image actually looks like a surrealist painting

Our Cabin Door 7610 with Please Take One Boy Butter Samples attached.
Work, Work, Work.

Brendan and I at the Main Dining Hall

Butter on the Balcony at Sunset


To those concerned with our stop in Haiti, we did do good, in addition to aiding in their battered Haitian economy Royal Caribbean delivered 65 pallets of food and aid to the people of Haiti and all of the boat's passengers raised over $205,000 in cash for the Haitian Crisis.

In all I had the best time ever and am doing it again next year!

Thanks Atlantis!

Love,

Boy Butter

P.S. My sister Miri calls my life "Vacation Station," because of my extensive traveling I guess.
NEXT STOP BUENOS AIRES FEB 2010!







Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Boy Butter Atlantis Cruise Log Jan 17th-19th

Well it has been amazing so far. This is my first cruise and it is incredible. The ship is a floating Las Vegas Hotel, the food is endless the guys are friendly, the service is amazing. The entertainment is great. I think I am addicted to cruises now. Im handing out samples like crazy.

I am including a couple images from the first couple days of our Caribbean adventure.

                          This is not our ship but a Carnival ship passing before us.

I was already marketing from the first hour, handing out samples to the neighbors.



This is labadee haiti, which was our first stop.

Bren and Me, looking magical.

Some of our friends from around the world.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Swastika found carved into Calabasas High School student’s car

This is my High School I graduated in 1996, it is about 80% Jewish and it is shocking to me that this happened there, and we found this news article on the home page of Yahoo.com, wtf is happening?
January 12, 2010 | 7:27 am CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL ARTICLE

A swastika found carved into the hood of a Calabasas High School student's car is being investigated as a possible hate crime, L.A. County sheriff's officials said today.

A school security guard noticed the large swastika about 2:45 p.m. Monday, after it apparently had been etched into the hood of the 2009 BMW with a key, said Lt. Debra Glafkides of the Sheriff's Department's Lost Hills station. The car's side mirrors also were broken off.

Deputies interviewed the owner of the car, a 17-year-old Jewish student, who said he believed the vandalism was religiously motivated. The student told deputies that twice in the last month someone had used his or her finger to draw a swastika in the dust on his car.

Authorities have no suspects.
--Tony Barboza

Boy Butter to set sail on Atlantis Cruise Jan 17th-24th

Boy Butter will be on the Atlantis Cruise Jan 17th-24th. The enormous city sized boat called Liberty of the Seas will carry over 3000 gay men through to Haiti, Grand Cayman and Mexico I am making sure to bring enough Boy Butter samples and do some guerilla marketting. I hope I won't overdose on circuit parties so I am planning on doing snorkeling and jet skiing non-stop!

Friday, January 8, 2010

A Jew Among The Heavyweights


A Jew Among The Heavyweights <--click here for original post.


Roman Greenberg prepares for next month’s fight

BY MARC TRACY | 10:00 AM Jan 8, 2010
Roman Greenberg, the Moldovan-born, Israeli-based heavyweight prizefighter, will enter the ring next month in Ukraine for the first time since his only defeat, in August 2008. He is training with his old coach outside Haifa, and plans to spar with the Klitschko brothers, the world’s two top heavyweights (who, unfortunately for violence addicts, refuse to fight each other). Can’t get enough about Jewish boxers? Douglas Century published a biography of triple-division champion Barney Ross for Nextbook Press. And check The Scroll for updates as the details of Greenberg’s bout solidify.
Greenberg Looks to the Klitschkos for Inspiration [The Jewish Chronicle]
Related: Barney Ross [Nextbook Press]

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Squeezing out a profit

To read the original Guide Magazine Article Click Here
By Jonathan Vatner



Eyal Feldman is a self-made man. He didn't go to business school. Almost everything he knows about production, sales and marketing he learned himself.
And yet, by any measure, Feldman is a big success. He is the creator of Boy Butter, a personal lubricant that is sold all over the world. Walk into any shop that sells lubes and his line is likely to be displayed prominently.
The 32-year-old Feldman stands at a commanding six-foot-four, and his shirt is unbuttoned far enough to reveal a Star of David atop a grizzly chest. He's a serious studmuffin -- to be convinced, just feast your eyes on any of his promotional posters or videos. Feldman is the company's spokesmodel.
"It's the Martha Stewart thing," he explains. "Nobody is going to sell my product better than me. And it keeps me trim."
Martha Stewart, of course, would never dare show off so much skin, nor would she approve Feldman's raunchy wordplay. In one ad, he appears in overalls but no shirt, one hand on his crotch, with the caption, "Freshly squeezed since 2003." In another, he's shirtless in a doorway, with the caption, "Fighting friction since 2003."
Becoming the big cheese of lube wasn't easy. Starting the business was expensive, time-consuming and frustrating.
"My mom always says it takes 20 years to become an overnight success," he remembers. "You have to go through the motions. It's hard at first, but once you're in your stride, everything begins to unfold."
Feldman could teach a course about the hard lessons he's learned. If he did, it would go something like this: The "aha!" moment is the easy part
Given that Boy Butter's slogan advises "squeezing a little into your tight agenda," it's only natural that Feldman's company began with a euphemism.
When Feldman moved to New York after college, he got a job at a Chelsea leather boutique called Nasty Pig, helping manage the store and handle wholesale orders. One day, while working in the store's back room, he was trading semen jokes with a coworker. Since some straight guys call it "baby batter," Feldman wondered what the gay equivalent would be? Easy: boy butter. Someone should make a lube with that name, he thought.
A year later, when he was living in Barcelona, Feldman was dating an expat from New Jersey who hadn't worked in two years and kept complaining that he wasn't doing anything with his life.
"Why don't you start a lube company?" Eyal suggested. But as the words came out of his mouth, he realized it was a challenge for himself.
Why not go into business? He figured it couldn't be harder than learning fluent Spanish, which he had managed without too much trouble.
Boy Butter, he decided, would be the first lube made especially for the gay market. It would be packed in a container resembling those used for margarine, which wouldn't scream "sex" but rather "food."
"I don't even mention sex," Feldman says, explaining his theory about using humor to market his product. "It's funnier if you tiptoe around it."
As he learned, turning a good idea into a successful product takes years of work.
"People have good ideas all the time," he says. "Actually applying them is the hard part."
Back working at Nasty Pig in New York, Feldman decided to start by putting his own label on an existing lube. His first challenge was to find one that was creamy, like freshly churned butter.
While delivering an order to The Leather Man, a Greenwich Village shop, he noticed a lube called Shaft.
"It was the best lube I'd ever used," he raves.
The makers were willing to let Feldman market it under his own label. Feldman placed an order for the custom-made plastic tubs and launched his product during the International Mr Leather competition over Memorial Day weekend in 2003.
It sold like hotcakes. He traveled around the country, delivering batches of the treat to shops and boutiques. Within a year, his market had expanded to Europe and Australia. His back-room joke had become a reality.

A penny saved is a penny earned
Even as sales exploded, Feldman says, the maker of the original formula declined to offer him a discount. He could barely squeeze out a profit.
To save some money, Feldman moved back in with his parents in California and set up an office in his old bedroom. To his surprise, it turned out that most of the lubes in the world were manufactured nearby.
His parents, though politically conservative, were behind him from day one, even investing in the Boy Butter brand.
"They give me material, emotional and all other sorts of support," he says. "A lot of Jewish families don't have the same qualms about talking about sex."
He reports that some family members even use the products themselves.
"My family has really opened up sexually," he says proudly.
Before he could make money, Feldman needed to concoct his own recipe. He worked for a year and a half with different cosmetics laboratories, but all the samples that came back were either goopy or lumpy, or they didn't last long or weren't slick enough.
"I was the head of the research department," the jokester says, with a smirk. "I did a battery of tests, on myself and other boys."
Finally, he found a formula that made him happy. It lasted longer than other lubes and washed off in water, leaving no "shame stains," in Feldman's parlance. The laboratory paid for the Food and Drug Administration approvals, in exchange for permission to manufacture Boy Butter.
Feldman still works to keep costs to a minimum. For example, his sister Donna, a fashion expert, shoots his ad campaigns, and he hangs the posters himself while doing sales calls in gay neighborhoods.

There's no such thing as bad press
Despite Boy Butter's popularity, its oil-based formula meant it couldn't be used with latex condoms. Feldman spent the next few years working on a water-based version. Ingredients like aloe vera and shea butter were added to achieve the right consistency.
In 2007, Feldman was set to release You Won't Believe It's Not Boy Butter -- "all the fun without all the fat," according to the slogan -- when he was sued for trademark infringement.
He had filmed an ad playing off the classic Country Crock commercials. Unilever, maker of both I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Country Crock, heard about the ad and filed a lawsuit. Feldman didn't find out until a customer saw a report in the New York Post.
"I thought my company was over," Feldman says. "I didn't have any concept of what was going to happen."
But the challenge turned out to be a routine trademark procedure. Feldman agreed to alter the logo, pull the ad and change the name to You'll Never Know It Isn't Boy Butter.
Despite his being force-fed humble pie, the incident turned out to be a blessing in disguise: during the controversy he got a whopping 400,000 hits on his website, far more than he would have received had the commercial aired.

Expand into new markets
Feldman is back in New York, reaping the profits of Boy Butter. He has been going steady with his boyfriend of almost five years --which means applications are no longer being considered for the Boy Butter test kitchen.
He is working on expanding his distribution and adding products to the Boy Butter line. When he released his water-based lube, he also packaged it as "Lucky" and marketed it through gynecologists to women with vaginal dryness.
Women are advised not to use oil-based lubes, because they can foster yeast infections, which makes Feldman's water-based formula a godsend. Even his grandparents in Israel are loyal customers.
"Imagine how mortified I am when they ask me to send some," he says.
He also sells Boy Butter Bonerz, through a private-label agreement.
"It's basically an herbal Cialis," he says. "My Dad loves it!"
Despite his product being offered on lube racks in boutiques and in doctors' offices, its roots in the leather and fetish communities seem to be the strongest. His most successful product to date is Boy Butter Extreme, a desensitizing lube that makes anal sex less painful, helps slow premature ejaculation, and proves indispensable for large toys. He advises users to be careful not to hurt themselves, though.
"Extreme is for my advanced customers," he explains. "Some of these people are parking a car up their ass."
A pause, and then another joke comes.
"In LA, that's really the only way to get parking."




Author Profile:  Jonathan Vatner
New Guide contributor Jonathan Vatner is a freelance writer and novelist living in New York. He specializes in travel, interior design, food, psychology, and gay life. Jonathan has written for The New York Times, O Magazine and The Advocate.



Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Happy New Year from Boy Butter 2010!

After spending an amazing time in Miami over New Years, I think 2010 will be an amazing year!
Im including a couple photos from around 12th Street beach in South Beach. Check out some photos of friends, a rainbow and a cool South Beach drag personality, Tiffany Fantasia, who gave out Boy Butter samples to the gayest audience ever (my very demographic) at the Palace on Ocean Blvd.

Tiffany Fantasia, and myself, (Excuse the red-eye, drag queens always make my eyes sparkle.)


Below is Peter, Justin and Brian, NYC friends who made it down, at happy hour at the Palace.



Below is good ol' Rob Jackson, who is really fun and almost as tall and cute as a button.

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