GAYLETTER

Last Sunday I invited my friend William to do this specialized pilates class using a machine called a megaformer with trainer Patrick McGrath (pictured) and my ass is still in pain. We left the class saying “ok, we get it, this class is for power bottoms...” The class is a “unique combination of cardio, strength training and Pilates.” It’s held at SLT (Strengten . Lenghen . Tone) which has several locations in the city and stands for “strengthen, lengthen and tone” basically all the things that I look for from an exercise routine, duh. Patrick tells me that “every class is full body, typically 1/3 to half of the class is legs, then obliques, arms and core strengthen.” Even though I am still in pain from the class, I think you should give it a try, at least if you want to switch up your boring gym routines... A few days after the class Patrick texted me and asked how I was doing and I was like “ouch,” he suggested that I take a hot shower, stretching my hamstrings and also do “pigeon pose.” He suggests you do the class 3-4 times a week, but I might have to work myself up to that since it’s taken me about a week to recover... Your ass will thank you!  —Abi

Hangovers can be fun. They’re an excuse to eat whatever you want, sleep-in, watch movies all day, but they can also be horrendous. Maybe once a year I’ll get one of those full-on, puking, shitting, pounding headache, I-need-to-go-to-rehab, jealous-of-everyone-who-doesn’t-look-hungover hangovers, and praise Allah do they suck. Well, now there’s a solution! The I.V. Doctor is literally the most first-world thing I have ever heard of. For $269 bucks a medical professional will come to your “office or home” and stick a needle in your arm and dose you up with the equivalent of 2 liters of Pedialyte enriched with Anti-nausea (Zofra), Anti-heartburn (Pepcid) and Anti-inflammatory/pain/headache (Toradol) intravenous medicine. It takes about 30-40 minutes, but afterwards your hangover is pretty much guaranteed to be gone. Now I’m not suggesting this for your average, run-of-the-mill hangover, as I mentioned earlier this is for those times when you have something really important to do but you can barely open your eyes, let alone get out of bed. The service can also be used if you have a stomach flu, jetlag, food poisoning or just want a quick little pick-me-up, but let’s be honest, a hangover is what it’s really all about. Go HAM winos!  —tom

How cute is this? A celebration at Lincoln Center of everything Sesame Street. The show has been on the air (around the world) for 45 years. That’s impressive. I grew up watching the show as kid, all the way on the other side of the planet in Melbourne, Australia. I loved me some Big Bird (pictured), Ernie and Bert, Cookie Monster, I even had a soft spot for Grouch. This exhibition at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts, includes “250 items related to the show and its production, including many of its stars: The original Elmo, Bert, Ernie, Count, and Oscar the Grouch will be on display, along with other televised Muppets. See iconic props (“rubber duckie, you’re the one…”) and pose with replicas of the lamppost and front steps of 123 Sesame Street.” This show is about as Instagram ready as it gets! If you see Snuffleupagus, make sure to say hi from us — you never know when that flaky queen will show up.    —tom

Someone said to me last night that Jan 1st is National Hangover Day. I started thinking about that and realized that I celebrate National Hangover Day about once a week. If you plan on participating in NHD for realz on January 1st then we’d like to suggest a few apps that we like to use on a far too regular basis. WunWun is a delivery app like no other. The service will deliver whatever you want, from pretty much anywhere, within the hour. Burritos, beer, video games from Best Buy — just type in your request and someone will pick it up and bring it over. Delivery is free, the only requirement is that you tip your delivery person. Instacart is another delivery service we love. They’ll pick up whatever you need from your local supermarket and deliver it for free within 2 hours. Then there’s Network, this app creates a personalized “channel” of videos from the web, based on your interests. The more videos you watch the more personalized it gets. It streams to both Apple TV and Chromecast. You can choose videos or let it play automatically. Skipping to the next video is as easy as swiping to the left on your phone. Finally there’s Advil and coffee, they’re not apps, but according to scientists at Thomas Jefferson University, caffeine and anti-inflammatories are the best ways to counteract the symptoms of a hangover. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G HURTS!!    —tom

Let’s be honest, young black men are unfairly targeted by the police force in this country at an alarming rate. Let’s just say it happens enough that even white people have started to notice it. And it’s really starting to piss everyone off. “Protect and Serve” is starting to sound as ludicrous as Fox’s tagline “Fair And Balanced.” Justice shouldn’t be an illusory thing like unicorns or cheap Manhattan apartments, it should be available to all of us. When a cop chokes an unarmed bystander to death they should be held accountable. When a cop kills an unarmed teen there should be consequences. This Saturday, December 13th tell the world that BLACK LIVES MATTER. That ALL LIVES MATTER. Head to Washington Square Park and let your voice be heard. Protest peacefully and send a message to those in control: enough is enough. As the organizers say: “This is not too ambitious. This is possible. This must happen in every major city, so spread the word. From west to east. Invite as many people as possible.” Times they are a changin'.    —tom

After the events of September 11, George Bush’s biggest piece of advice to the American people was not hug the people we love and be thankful for everything we have, it was to go shopping. The reason is simple: America’s economy is completely consumer based. The reason we’re the biggest (for now, we see you China) is because people here spend a lot of money buying stuff. The more we make, the more we spend, the more we make the more we spend, round and round until we die. That’s what keeps us No.1 — the fact that we’re great shoppers. Yet most of the stuff we buy is crap, we don’t need, we just want it. And it’s holding us back, it’s stopping us from becoming financially independent. So this Black Friday, when everyone is running around like crazy people trying to get supposed deals, buy nothing. It’s gonna feel weird, but that’s OK, you can do this. If the cravings get too much, just masturbate, that’s free and just as much fun. #blackfridayblackout  —Gayletter

It may be getting cold outside but it’s 80 degrees inside the tropical butterfly enclosure at the American Museum of Natural History. Returning for its 16th year, the 1200 square foot vivarium (that’s the fancy name for the enclosure) contains around 500 species of butterflies including monarchs, zebra longwings and iridescent blue morpho butterflies. Go in the middle of the day to avoid the throng of parents and kids that will inevitably swarm this exhibition on the weekends. It’s the perfect first date experience, or even better the perfect coming down from whatever you took last night experience, for a brief moment you can imagine you’re on a tropical island surrounded by exotic, beautiful butterflies, that is until you get back on the 6th train and reality comes rushing back in — is that homeless man masturbating with a plastic bag? Oh New York, you never fail to keep things interesting!  —tom

This might seem like an odd one for us to cover, but as you might be able to tell from Thursday’s event we’re big fans of drugs that have proven health benefits. Weed is one of those, and so are many psychedelics like mushrooms, LSD, ketamine and MDMA. All have been proven to be EXTREMELY beneficial for those dealing with all kinds of disorders like PTSD, anxiety and depression. The people behind this Indiegogo campaign are most interested in the use of MDMA in a therapeutic setting. “In a recently published study, 83% of subjects receiving MDMA-assisted psychotherapy no longer qualified for PTSD, and everyone who received a placebo and then went on to receive MDMA-assisted psychotherapy experienced significant and lasting improvements. Primarily female survivors of sexual assault and abuse, these subjects had suffered from PTSD for an average of 19 years.” That’s nothing if not miraculous. They need funds to complete a massive trial in Colorado in the hopes of making the treatment legal by 2021. Let’s help them get there.

This is one of those random, only-in-New-York events that we love to write up. It’s also one of the best (or potential worst) first date ideas out there. Basically Vanderbilt Hall (that name is sooooo Gossip Girl) at Grand Central station is being transformed into a giant picnic space. From 7:00AM to 7:00PM they’re laying down Astro turf and setting up checkered picnic tables. There’s going to be all sorts of food vendors selling tasty treats, and entertainment from musicians and even magicians (ah, ok). There’s even free WiFi, so if your date is a disaster you can immediately go on Facebook and complain about it. It’s all free (well not the food) and it only runs till this Friday. So get moving!    —tom

We just discovered this newish (it came earlier this year, but is having a moment) App called Secret. Similar to it’s rival Whisper it allows anyone to post an anonymous “secret” (I put that in quotes because most posts are less secrets than bitchy thoughts one should probably keep to oneself) and share it with Facebook friends or phone contacts. People can then comment on the post, all without anyone knowing who anyone else is. The makers of the app say it allows users to “find out what [their] friends are really thinking and feeling.” That may be true, but it doesn’t take much to get extremely personal. I posted a stupid comment about Abi on the app: “Abi Benitez from GAYLETTER just passed me on the street. So Crazy.” to see what would happen. Within a few hours a bunch of anonymous comments had popped up. Some nice “He’s hot” while others were borderline racist: “Run. What barrio are you in?” There’s something liberating about knowing what people really think of you — once it’s all out in the open it has less chance of hurting you — however there’s some things, like our looks or our race, that we can’t (and shouldn’t have to) change. To have someone go after those things anonymously is not only cowardly, it’s just cruel. So approach the app with caution, keep it light, keep it about yourself, and leave names out of it (unless you want to compliment me on my nice cock).  —tom