Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Awesome RV trip through Olympic National Park

We just returned from an amazing RV camping adventure trip to the rain forests, rivers, mountains and lakes of the gorgeous Pacific Northwest. We stayed in pristine camp grounds and toured almost the entire Olympic National Park area of the Peninsula, from hiking through the Hoh Rainforest to swimming miles and miles in crystal blue glacier lakes which were magical, enlivening and extremely frigidly cold and enlivening. Please check out some beautiful pictures of the RV trip below.

Boy Butter RV Camping in the super obvious 30" foot Cruise America Motor Home, 
which was like driving a motel room (with kitchen) around
BMcG driving the RV
Whale Skull at a Ranger Station  

A glacier lake, Lake Quinault 
Waving back before my swim at Quinault Lake
Cold swimming in Quinault Lake
You might be able to see me in the middle of Lake Cushman waving back.
Big Creek River
I admit it, when it comes to "Big Spruce" I'm a tree hugger
Hoh Rainforest Stream
Brendan's Hoh Rainforest hike 
Hoh Rainforest scenery
Beautiful little waterfall on the side of the road.
Huge downed tree 
Slug we almost stepped on.
Beautiful forest tree lined patheway.
Gorgeous woods view.

Friday, August 27, 2010

FHM South Africa: Donna Feldman on cover and 8 Page layout for October 2010

Check out my super model sister Donna Feldman's 
on cover and eight page spread on FHM South Africa for the October 2010 issue
      

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Boy Butter hits Seattle on tour of Pacific Northwest

Well we arrived late morning to Seattle, Washington as part of the Boy Butter tour of the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Over the next week we shall hit beautiful cities and national parks like, Seattle, Tacoma, Olympic National Park, Victoria and Vancouver in Canada before heading back to NYC. 
Check out some of the photos of me and my better half, BMcG as we tour Seattle on our first day.

First stop in Seattle, Capitol Hill, which is  Seattle's Gay Village,
 doing a little Guerilla Marketing.
Seattle's famous Space Needle as seen from Capitol Hill.
Brendan at the nations first Starbucks
 founded in 1971 at Pike Place Market.
Seattle's famous Pike Place Market 
with fisherman's wharf and farmer's market.
Inside the delicious Pike Place Market.
Seattle skyline.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

NYC: Protesters demonstrate for, against 'Ground Zero' mosque


NEW YORK (AFP)---Several hundred protesters staged rival demonstrations Sunday for and against plans to build a mosque near the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks, some brandishing signs against Islam and others denouncing religious bigotry.   
Though small in scale, the street protests reflect an intensifying national debate that has exposed a raw nerve over US attitudes toward Islam nearly nine years after Al-Qaeda militants flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center, killing nearly 3,000 people.  
Mayor Michael Bloomberg supports the mosque, the city council has approved the project for a community center, and President Barack Obama has invoked the constitution's guarantee of religious freedom.   
But 61 percent of Americans disapprove of it, and opposition to the mosque has been taken up with fervor by conservative politicians like former Republican lawmaker Newt Gingrich who likened it to building a Nazi site next to the Holocaust memorial.   
Daisy Khan, the executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, which is behind the proposed Islamic community center and mosque, said Muslims are concerned about the tone of the debate.   
"Because this is like a metastasized anti-Semitism. That's what we feel right now. It's not even Islamophobia, it's beyond Islamophobia. It's hate of Muslims. And we are deeply concerned," she said in an interview on ABC's "This Week" program.   
Opponents have pressed for the community center's organizers to move to another location further from 'Ground Zero' in deference to the charged public sentiment. New York Governor David Patterson has even offered state land for an alternate site.   
Karen Hughes, a former White House communications director who had urged then-president George W. Bush to visit a mosque shortly after the 9/11 attacks to reassure Muslims, Sunday urged Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and his congregation to choose another site.
Writing in the Washington Post, she said the debate was "less about our freedom of religion than about the common sense and uncommon courtesy sometimes required to come together as Americans."   
Khan, who is married to the imam, said any decision to move from the privately owned site had to be carefully weighed.   
"And we have to be cognizant that we also have a constitutional right. We have the Muslim community around the nation that we have to be concerned about, and we have to worry about the extremists as well, because they are seizing this moment," she said.  
Meanwhile, protesters from one side and the other began gathering in lower Manhattan under a fine rain Sunday morning, taking up positions about 100 meters and two streets away from each other, but also worlds apart.   
"Don't let Islam mark a victory with a Mosque," said a banner raised by protesters who gathered at the corner of the site of the proposed Islamic center, on a privately owned lot two blocks from "Ground Zero," the epicenter of the September 11 attacks.   
"You can build a Mosque at Ground Zero when we can build a Synagogue in Mecca," said another placard.   
A group of about 50 bikers in leather jackets roared in bearing the emblem of the New York Fire Department, many of whose members were killed during a doomed attempt to rescue people trapped inside the burning towers.   
Joe O'Shay, a lawyer who wore a T-shirt covered with slogans against the mosque, tearfully said he had turned out to protest because "I am a New Yorker and I lost a nephew here."   
Protesters waved American flags as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" blared from loudspeakers.   
Organizers distributed signs with the inscription "Sharia" in bloodlike red letters.   
Two streets away, a small crowd about the same size called for tolerance, their signs defending freedom of religion and pleading for acceptance of immigrants of all faiths.   
Their signs said "Down with religious bigotry," "Bigotry is UnAmerican" and "Repudiate Islamophobia!" 

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Read my Travel Column in Ambiente Mag: Miami of the Middle East

Check out my first travel column about my recent trip to Israel from Ambiente Magazine, a Miami based magazine that caters to the Hispanic Gay community.

Photos from the Ambiente Article
Me under an arch in Caesaria
Old City wall of Jerusalem
Me at the Dead Sea
Fortress in old city of Jerusalem

Monday, August 16, 2010

COMPETE, The Gay Sports Magazine: Eyal Feldman presents checks to SAGE.

Last month, Eyal Feldman, the NY-based founder of Boy Butter products, swam across Israel's six-mile (10km) Sea of Galilee, the largest body of water in the country, to raise money for two charities, the Jewish Home for the Aging and SAGE (Seniors Active in a Gay Environment). Last Wednesday, Aug. 11, Eyal presented a check for $1,750 to SAGE's Executive Director Michael Adams. 
"Despite advances in LGBT civil rights, many senior care providers never stop to consider that their older clients may be lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) - and even those who do may not know how to provide services in culturally-sensitive ways. As a result, LGBT seniors often avoid seeking needed services out of fear of discrimination. The tendency for LGBT seniors to go "back in the closet" is particularly pronounced in situations where they are most vulnerable - such as when accessing home health care or residing in assisted living or residential care facilities. One study indicated that LGBT seniors may be as much as five times less likely to access needed health and social services because of their fear of discrimination from the very people who should be helping them.
This type of social isolation has an enormous impact in the health and well-being of LGBT seniors. With LGBT seniors twice as likely to live alone than heterosexual seniors, more than four times as likely to have no children, the informal caregiving support we assume is in place for older adults may not be there for LGBT elders."
For more information on SAGE or to make a donation, please visit www.sageusa.org

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Cat fight caught on film: Billy vs. Lily

I was lucky enough to catch a rare cat fight on camera. All this happens in 90 seconds, they go from two peaceful kittes hanging out, then in a matter of seconds an all out cat fight ensues. My two feline fighters are William J. Kittens aka Billy,a 8 year old Tabby versus Lily D'Kat a svelt energetic and box loving tortoise shelled cat. Check out the video (sorry about the poor quality of this video) but I have better photos of this rare hilarious moment.

Billy and Lily sharing a peaceful moment
Bam! Bam! Bam!
This is comfortable.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

This week in History - First Jews arrive in New Amsterdam

This week in history - The first Jew set foot in New York - August 1654.


In search of freedom to worship and equal opportunities, Jacob Barsimson set sail from Holland to American on July 8, 1654, to become the first Jew to set foot in New York. ThePear Tree docked in New Amsterdam on August 22 that same year, and 23 Jews from Dutch Brazil followed Barsimson’s example and went on to establish the first Jewish settlement in the United States.

However, Barsimson and the others found that New Amsterdam was no different from whence they came. Governor Peter Stuyvesant treated them as separate citizens; they couldn't engage in retail trade, practice handicrafts, hold public position, serve in the militia or practice their religion in a synagogue or in gatherings. Along with the other Jews, Barsimson, presented a petition to Gov. Stuyvesant for the right to buy a burial plot, which was denied because there was no immediate need for it. However later, under pressure from Holland's Amsterdam Jews, Stuyvesant granted them this right.

On September 22, 1654, Stuyvesant wrote to the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce to complain about the presence of Jewish refugees from Brazil who had recently arrived in New Amsterdam. He felt that they were blasphemers of the name Christ and that they would infect the colony with trouble.

In the meantime, Barsimson and other New Amsterdam Jews kept putting pressure on Stuyvesant for full citizenship rights. They insisted on the right to serve in the militia and guard the walls of the city to protect the settlers and cattle, which were kept inside the walls at night, from the raids and attacks of the Indians and the New England settlers. Thanks to several influential Jews in Dutch West India Company who pressured the Governor, Jews received these rights in April, 1655.

In 1664, When the British conquered New Amsterdam and changed its name to New York, the Jewish settlers continued to enjoy their previous rights. However, it was only in 1697 that a Simon Valentine became the first documented Jewish landowner, which entitled him to vote.

Thanks to the actions of these brave settlers, today’s New York Jewish population is some two million, second only to Israel.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Listen to me on The Black and the Jew Comedy Hour


You are gonna love my latest appearance on the hilarious Aug, 6th 2010 broadcast of The Black and the Jew Comedy Hour from NY Talk Radio. 

Friday, August 6, 2010

Los Angeles: The Valley Vantage Newspaper covered the news about my marathon charity swim last month.

The San Fernando Valley the north west region that makes up half of Los Angeles where I happen to grow up has a number of small newspapers, one of which the weekly paper, The Valley Vantage has come out today with news about my marathon swim across the Sea of Galilee last month in Israel to raise money for two elderly organizations, to know more about that charity click here.

To read the original news article on page 3,


Thursday, August 5, 2010

Listen to my interview this Sunday on LA Talk Radio's The Alternative

 Listen to my interview on LA Talk Radio's, The Alternative with Terry LeGrandthis Sunday Aug 8th at 6pm-8 pm Pacific 9-11pm Eastern, here is a cute teaser ad from the radio show.

Naomi Campbell testifies in War Crimes Trial over Blood Diamonds


Model tells court: Not clear gift was diamonds By TOBY STERLING (AP)  
Associated Press Writer Michelle Faul in Johannesburg contributed to this report.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Paris: Super Model Donna Feldman on Flagship Store of New Yorker Clothing Billboard

Bonjour from France, where my fashion-model sister, Donna Feldman is featured on a central Paris billboard of the popular German based clothing chain, New Yorker.  The campaign's photos were taken in a castle in Hannover Germany, check out the behind the scenes video of the photo shoot for this campaign,

Here are closer look at those billboard images of Donna Feldman.


Monday, August 2, 2010

Boy Butter shout out in Ben and Dave's Six Pack Interview



The vast wasteland of talk radio that spawned Rush Limbaugh, Laura Schlesinger and Glenn Beck is rocky terrain for gay chatters. But we've latched on to our gay Lewis and Clark of the Internet airwaves: Ben Harvey and Dave Rubin. The occasional OutQ guest hosts have their own radio show and podcast, "The Six Pack," (soon to celebrate its 50th episode), a cheeky weekly mash-up of gay news, celebrity interviews and Boy Butter giveaways to make the airways gay-friendly and safe, if not entirely safe for work.  

Followers