Every once in a great while, someone breaks through the social media bedlam to touch me in just the right way, providing something I didn’t realize I needed so badly. In the case of this Dazzler of the Day, that magical person is Chrissy Flanagan, and when I stumbled upon one of her videos in which she’s grappling unsuccessfully with a lamp which refuses to remain lit, I laughed – deep, stomach-muscle-building laughter, with tears pouring forth from my eyes – and I was reminded of how much joy there still is in the world if you know where to look for it. 

Flanagan is a former sausage queen (aren’t we all) and has the meaty background to back it all up, but she has recently moved into a new business venture, one which showcases her gorgeously-infectious energy and enthusiasm – it’s called Chaotic Social, and though it’s halfway around the world (greetings Australia!) the spirit she captures on camera for her online outlets carries over the distance without any sort of deterioration. A sausage queen who can sew and paint and conjure colorful enchantment is my kind of person. (Her fashion style alone is giving me life this week.) Check out her beautiful link tree here. 

“The break of up a decade long relationship and subsequent bouts of loneliness have led me – Sydney’s former Sausage Queen, Chrissy Flanagan – to solve others’ desire to make adult friends, as well as my own.

It’s often said Sydney is a particularly tricky place to make friends as an adult. If you miss out on doing any of the big four locally or at all – high school, uni, work, kids – it’s hard to bridge the gap, leaving many of us lonelier than we would like.

And yet, as adults we’re embarrassed or too self conscious to use modern tools such as friend networking apps to solve this problem.

Chaotic Social is seeking to bridge that gap, in the form of classes on weird crafts, mad skills and naked ambition, where you’re encouraged to roll solo and go home with a few new mates in your phone.

While making hectic articles such as creepy dolls, bad badass self portraits and bedazzled tiddie tassels, we will also have big chats and indulge in purely fun sh!t like blue light discos and stand up. Yes there will be games, no participation is not optional.

Formerly co-owner of restaurant The Sausage Factory and brewery Queens of Chaos, my notoriously rowdy and long running sausage classes will continue Sundays at the new venue.”

~ Chrissy Flanagan

When you get to be my age (should you ever get to be my age, or if you already have gotten to be my age and decided not to stay) the body begins to slacken and harden into something you never thought it would be. I’ve felt it in recent years – the slowing, the tensing, the hunching, and the general shrinking into itself – and the way I’ve been moving, or not moving, is having a deleterious effect on physical comfort and mental well-being.

Enter Roger Frampton and the idea of stretching to build flexibility and strength, while returning to a more youthful vigor and stance. His first book, ‘The Flexible Body’, is en route to my home as I just ordered it, and I look forward to engaging with the Frampton Method for the rest of this summer, and hopefully beyond. He offers an online training program which comes with a multi-media onslaught of support to help anyone begin or improve upon their fitness regime. For Frampton, it begins and ends with flexibility, and for encouraging us all to get a little more creative and active, he earns this Dazzler of the Day.

Check out his website here for further inspiration. 

The modern lifestyle has revolutionized the way we utilize our bodies, which were not evolved for extended periods of sitting at desks, fixating on screens, or enduring prolonged hours in a seated position.

Whilst our bodies cannot articulate their needs through words, they communicate through signals akin to those of a baby. These signals manifest as pain.

The initial step is to revert to the fundamentals and embark on a journey to restore the inherent movements we were born with. This can be accomplished by cultivating a daily habit beginning with just 10 minutes each day, and then gradually increasing the duration until it becomes as instinctive as brushing your teeth.

Before you bring up your age and contend that immobility is an inevitable part of aging, please take a stroll through the parks in China where you will see ‘elderly individuals’ free from pain and moving as gracefully as they did many years back.

If they can achieve it, there is no reason why you can’t too. I’ve had the privilege of helping people worldwide to transform their lives and reclaiming their true mobility.

~ Roger Frampton

Recently celebrating three years of sobriety, Dave Becker earns this Dazzler of the Day for his efforts at spreading a sober celebration and lifestyle. He helms the ‘Sober Gay Sunday’ Podcast here (which goes beyond Sundays!) and heads up a Sober Social group in the Boston area – not an area known for its welcoming or warm social activities. Recovery from addiction is a daily, sometimes hourly, effort that lends itself to serious introspection and evolution, and Becker manages to go deep on his podcast while retaining a refreshing candidness that can be an element of joy. This joy is what drives his embrace of sobriety – a word and concept that has historically carried all kinds of somber connotations. These days, sobriety has gotten a much-deserved rebranding into something actually fun – a way to more genuinely connect with others, and a lifestyle that is just as fabulous as those days of drinking without the regret and health risks. Becker is the embodiment of getting up and trying every day as if it’s the first, and sharing his journey to help others along the way. 

She gave ‘Sex & the City’ its spark and sizzle, and now she’s lending her heat to the current ‘Glamorous’, which Boy Culture, my go-to site for all things gay and fabulous, recently and glowingly reviewed. Kim Cattrall is one of those stars with whom some of us have grown up and now affectionately consider a friend despite having never met her. Personally, I recommend the under-appreciated gem ‘Live Nude Girls’ for a career highlight, which I saw at a Boston Film Festival and absolutely adored. She seemed to be sewing the seeds of Samantha Jones there, and ever since then she’s been proving to be so much more than that, as witnessed by theatrical turns on stage and musical turns as a jazzy chanteuse. She’s earned this Dazzler of the Day thanks to the sheer determination, guts, grit and glamour that it takes to survive in show business all these years. 

The quirky fact that he used an actual camera to take this featured selfie is reason alone to grant Neil Patrick Harris his first crowning as Dazzler of the Day, but he’s got a career and a lifetime of accomplishments to justify it beyond that fun fact. He likely won’t remember it, but I swear he gave me the finger when tearing up the stage in his Tony-winning performance in ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’, and that’s just the tip of the entertainment juggernaut he’s amassed and created over the years. These days he is successfully balancing an ambitious entertainment career (that touches about every form of entertainment there is) and a burgeoning family life with husband and two kids. Not all child actors are able to make the transition to adult superstardom – Harris is the happy exception, and an inspirational role-model for all. 

In front of many a strong man is a stronger woman, and while this website has thus far only celebrated the Nick Jonas half of this entertainment power couple, it is Priyanka Chopra Jonas who earns this Dazzler of the Day. As an actress, singer, film producer, writer and philanthropist, she is one of India’s most renowned and beloved celebrities. She has been making motions for worldwide domination with recent films and series such as ‘Quantico’, ‘Baywatch‘, ‘Isn’t It Romantic’, ‘Citadel’ and ‘Love Again’. Her upcoming work ‘Heads of State’ finds her joining John Cena and Idris Elba for an action film, but that might be a cakewalk compared to her latest role as mother. 

After an auspicious start as a fashion model, Sidharth Malhotra quickly and sensationally made the jump to acting, where he has crafted a passionate worldwide following for his television and film appearances. including the upcoming  film ‘Yodha’ and web series ‘Indian Police Force’. This marks his first Dazzler of the Day crowning, in a happy year that started off with a much-ballyhooed wedding. 

Currently starring in the Barrington Stage Company’s production of ‘Cabaret’, Dan Amboyer earns his first Dazzler of the Day crowning thanks to an impressive theatrical career, with turns in such classics as ‘The Tempest’, ‘Godspell’, ‘Dido and Aeneas’, ‘As You Like It’, ‘Inherit the Wind’, and The Importance of Being Earnest’. His latest onscreen appearance was in the Neil Patrick Harris Netflix comedy series ‘Uncoupled’ and he recently became a father, so he will likely be booked for the foreseeable future. Catch him here for now. 

Late in the night during one of my teenage years she came to me. Flipping through the channels, I paused as this red-haired force of nature chewed the entire screen up with a fascinating amalgamation of song, comedy, stories, acting, and brilliance. This was Sandra Bernhard in her iconic show ‘Without You I’m Nothing’ – one of the first introductions some of us had to the wit, bravado, and bold magnificence of this performer, and reason alone for naming her Dazzler of the Day. She created worlds upon worlds of emotion and pathos and thrilling comedic relief, taking us right up to the edge of all that was known and familiar, then gleefully tossing us all over it. I fell for her then and there, and it’s been a lifelong love affair ever since. She is busier than ever, appearing on stage and screen and radio and album – and her summer schedule has her popping up in all the classic LGBTQ+ destinations, starting with San Francisco and Provincetown. Check out her website here for more info on all the things she has brewing. 

For many gay males of a certain era (namely mine) the International Male and Undergear catalogs were our entryway into the world of gay erotica. Cloaked in often-campy and always-questionable fashion, it was the lack of clothing options – and underwear-forward photo shoots – that made these catalogs such a hit. Not gonna lie – I was there for the fashion too, and the true shame in my closet wasn’t my sexuality as much as the multitude of lace-up pirate shirts that once constituted the wardrobe, to say nothing of all the gauze… but I disdainfully digress.

One of those male models who personified International Male and the unattainable aspiration they were selling was Brian Buzzini. He will forever be embedded in my teenage fantasies, moodily staring out of those pages clad in a skimpy pair of black bikini briefs, as if he lived his life on the shore, just hanging out in his underwear – and that was most certainly the life for me. Today he looks just as chiseled, with the additional character that a couple of decades imbues into the best of the survivors (and those who have obviously taken care of themselves over the years). For that, he earns this Dazzler of the Day.