MetroSource Magazine Celebrates Its 25th Year

Metrosource is a general interest magazine edited for the urbane gay male.  Published every other month, it competes for advertising dollars with Out, The Advocate and, to a lesser degree, Next (in New York).  Like Next, MetroSource is free, available largely at bars and restaurants in neighborhoods that cater to gay residents and tourists.  The publication covers entertainment, shopping, home design, travel and health/fitness.  The back of the magazine (comprising about one-quarter of an issue's total pages) has paid listings for local service providers such as accountants, doctors, lawyers, dentists, therapists, plastic surgeons, etc. - but no escorts (which is Next's bread and butter).  In its 25th year, MetroSource has been publishing longer than Next or Out and has outlived Genre, Instinct and HX (a competitor of Next).  The guiding force behind this enterprise for all these years has been owner and publisher, Rob Davis.

 

June/July 2015

 

Spring 2002

 

Aug/Sept 2008

 

MetroSource is a handsome publication edited with an affluent reader in mind (but because of its free distribution, who knows who actually picks it up and reads it).  Unlike Out and The Advocate, Metrosource devotes little coverage to "hard" news (no pun intended - or perhaps it was).  Of course, being a magazine targeted to gay men, every issue can be counted on to have some eye candy in its pages.

 

June/July 2008

 

Spring 2005

 

 

 

The magazine has three featured columnists, one of which, David Dean Bortrell, I think bears a striking resemblance to me - what do you think?

 

In addition to sexy men, the magazine also celebrates our female icons, including the likes of Margaret Cho, Kathy Griffin, Kylie Minogue and Sarah Jessica Parker and her gal pals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dec/Jan 2004 issue (Sarah Jessica Parker looks peculiar, almost like it's an impersonator)

 

In closing, here's a gallery of more tantalizing covers and editorial pages ...

 

Summer 2003

 

Summer 2002

 

Feb/March 2002

 

 

Summer 2002

 

April/May 2005

 

April/May 2005

 

Summer 2004

 

Summer 2004

 

Feb/March 2002

 

Fall 2001

 

Spring 1998

 

Fall 1997

 

 

The Scent of a Man ... in Advertising

The funny thing about advertising is how much of it gets my attention despite the fact that I'm rarely in the market for the products being advertised.  But, like a dog who stops everything whenever a squirrel is around, I do the same whenever a bare-chested man comes into my field of vision on the screen or printed page.  Like the ads that follow ...

 

 

 

This hunk's stunned expression in this TV ad comes after his wife tells him that he's using Summer's Eve Body Wash.

 

This traffic-stopping billboard in Greenwich Village's Sheridan Square back in 2009 is for Manhunt's mobile app.

 

It looks like blondie is ready to make the best of an awkward situation, thanks to Breath Savers

 

This is recruitment ad for the US Army is from a telephone kiosk in Greenwich Village.

 

This ad for Garnier conditioner from the early 2000s has a European feel to it. (As for me, whenever I pull a guy's hair I tend to tug on the hair at the nape of his neck.)

 

Tune-in ad in a subway station for the HBO drama "The Leftovers", starring sexy Justin Theroux (pictured).

 

Trainer Stefano Pinto served as spokesman in this 2012 ad for Voskos yogurt.

 

I'm guessing that his front is as  impressive as his back ...

 

Magazine ad for the NewYork-NewYork Hotel in Las Vegas.

 

1988 ad for Interface skin care's line of products for men.

 

Poster for the 1992 revival of "A Streetcar Named Desire" starring hirsute Alec Baldwin as Stanley Kowalski.

 

This is an ad for a construction company in northern India, Gaursons India Limited.  I came across it in a magazine in my hotel during a business trip to London about ten years ago.

 

From a 2015 TV commercial for Degree Dryspray for Men.

 

 

This ad for Liquid Plumr serves as an oasis for housewives bombarded by ads during Daytime TV for pharmaceuticals, burial insurance and lawyers.

 

 

Now for some reader participation, write your own scenario ...

 

 

Zippity do dah!

Republican Versus Democratic Eye Candy

Republicans control both Houses of Congress - and they also seem to have an edge when it comes to handsome men (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is an exception).  From the Ronald Reagan school of politics, they engage with their dazzling smiles and Hollywood good looks.  But although their faces may be chiseled and handsome, their misguided political beliefs nullify these physical attributes.  As the narrator in Into the Woods observed about Cinderella's step sisters, "They were beautiful of face, but vile and black of heart."  Handsome Democrats, on the other hand, follow the George Clooney playbook, using their animal magnetism to draw attention to causes that benefit the nation's welfare.  They may be outnumbered by Republicans but the team they field is on the side of the angels.

 

REPUBLICAN HEAD TURNERS

 

Miami mayor, Francis Suarez

 

Marco Rubio, baby-faced US Senator from Florida and 2016 presidential candidate; looks like baldness is in his future (and his ears are unusually prominent for someone so young).

 

 

Yet another Floridian, David Jolly was briefly a congressman in the 2010s and is now a prominent critic of Trump who eventually left the Republican party. 

 

Rick Perry, the former benighted governor of Texas later became Trump's benighted Secretary of Energy

 

Jon Huntsman, former governor of Utah and 2012 presidential candidate; too sensible to be a Republican 

 

Scott Brown, former Massachusetts senator and one-time Playgirl centerfold

 

Vice President Mike Pence first received national attention as governor of Indiana for his misguided Freedom of Religion act

 

Aaron Schock, better known for appearing shirtless on the cover of Men's Health than for anything he accomplished in the House of Representatives while representing Illinois. He was forced to resign after spending $50K to redecorate his DC office, at taxpayer expense, to resemble the decor of Downton Abbey.  In 2020 he decided to come out.

 

JC Watts, former Oklahoma Sooner football player and a former Congressman from Oklahoma

 

Ted Haggard, former leader of The New Life Church, was brought low after his relationship with a male escort was made public by the escort.

 

Eric Cantor, sexy in a nerdy way, but I always  wanted to smack the smirk off his face - something his Virginia constituents accomplished when they voted him out of office in 2014.

 

Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor who introduced the nation to mandatory health coverage and his belief that 47% of voters are moochers. Lost to Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election

 

Jeff Flake, one-term Senator from Arizona (thru 2019) who decided not to run for re-election because it would have required him to fight to win.  This photo looks like it was torn out of the LL Bean catalog

 

Cory Gardner, newly elected senator from Colorado

 

David Vitter, US senator from Louisiana. His admission to patronizing prostitutes didn't keep his constituents from re-electing him.

 

Brian Sandoval, former two-term governor of Nevada (2011-2019)

 

Adam Kinzinger, another hottie congressman from Illinois

 

Sean Duffy, former  congressman from Wisconsin, resembles late actor Cory Monteigh  ("Glee")

 

DEMOCRATS WHO TURN HEADS

They may be fewer in number but the stable of sexy Democrats still pack a punch (sorry, Anthony Weiner, you did not make this list) ...

 

Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts. Sexy as hell with a great name to boot.

 

Antonio Villaraigosa, former mayor of Los Angeles

Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland

 

 

Pennsylvania representative Brian Sims. What can be said except, WOW (or perhaps, woof!).

 

Gavin Newsom, governor of California and former lieutenant governor and mayor of San Francisco

 

Jack Conway, attorney general of Kentucky

 

Martin Heinrich, senator from New Mexico

 

Sam Adams, former gay mayor of Portland, OR.

 

Cedric Richmond, congressman from Louisiana

 

Eric Swalwell, congressman from California and briefly threw his hat in the ring during the 2020 presidential campaign

 

Juan Castro, mayor of San Antonio. His identical twin brother, Joaquin, is a congressman from Texas.  Like Swalwell, he too pursued the Democratic nomination for president.