Publisher's VOICE - Feb. 2010

Dear Friends:

    I am honored and so very proud that you have embraced the new Vital VOICE magazine. My goal is to continue to celebrate how diversely amazing our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community truly is. For it is because of you that Vital Voice can showcase the many facets and modern lifestyle of today’s St. Louis LGBT community.

    On a frigid and wintery Jan. 6 evening over 225 people showed up to our official Vital VOICE launch party at SOL Lounge. Merriment and mayhem ensued as guests sipped on libations provided by Absolute Vodka. I personally couldn’t have asked for a better evening of inspiration to solidify why I do this, and I thank all who braved the snow storm to usher in a new era of LGBT media for the St. Louis region.

    A big thank you must go out to all of our sponsors—Pure Power, Absolute Vodka, Food Outreach, Band Together, Glitter Bomb Production, Rock Uniform PR and SOL lounge for making our party an event. I urge you to patronize these amazing sponsors for all that they do for our community.

    Welcome to GAGA nation. I must give major props to the Fabulous Fox Theatre for bringing Lady GAGA to St. Louis. All of the hype and rumors made the entire experience dramatic, surreal, amazing, luxurious and sexy-cool. Indeed, her one-night-appearance in The Lou will be forever seared onto our collective consciousness. Our senior writer and web editor, Colin Murphy has appropriately described the experience as GAGA fever and nothing could be truer.

    I was fortunate enough to attend the concert with a few of my very special friends in celebration of my birthday and I must confess that I haven’t had that much fun at a concert since Madonna’s Blonde Ambition Tour. Oh wait—I’m dating myself. Oops! I would describe the GAGA concert neither as show nor party. Rather, for me—it was a full-tilt happening and I was overwhelmed with the most-perfect blend of audio and visual artistry. If you missed it, fret not. We have created a full cover feature just for you. And if you were lucky enough to be there you can relive the experience right here. Again, thank you to the Fabulous Fox and Interscope Records for bringing us the Lady GAGA Experience.

    Over the past few months while rebranding Vital VOICE, I have been aided and inspired by many people, both past and present. I feel that it only appropriate for me to publish the names of those who have helped by making Vital VOICE magazine what it is and will become. Thank you Bill Donius, Sharon Tucci, Pamela Schneider, Allyson Mace, Kellie Trivers, Leslie Tunney, Debra Bass, Thom Halter and Kelly Hamilton for believing in me and educating me on what it is I must do in this crazy world of publishing. None of this could happen without the dedicated work of Tess Tulley, Colin Murphy, Karla Robinson, Jeff Kapfer, Richard Nichols, Mark Webber and Gabrial Thorne. Team Vital VOICE busts their collective booties everyday to bring you everything of quality about the LGBT community here in St. Louis. To those who inspire me almost every day… Garrett Haas, H. Ray Davis, Damir Simovic, Jennifer Neal, Michael Drummond, Robyn Montague, Sherrill Wayland, Travis Byrne, Lee Bond, Alex Dren, Drew Baumgartner, Dieta Pepsi, Mark Erney, Joey Giliberti and Jeff Smalls thank you for being pretty much my everything. I’m sure I have forgotten several people but you know who you are. Okay—that’s enough of the love fest!

    Vital VOICE magazine is proud to present our Non-Profit of the Month, Planned Parenthood. Their service to the community is invaluable and oftentimes thankless work. I encourage you to read the dissertation on STDs and how you can prevent poor choices and promote good sexual health. And you can always visit them at their headquarters located at the corner of Boyle and Forest Park Parkway or log onto their website www.ppslr.org .

    Stay Tuned for an exciting March issue. Vital VOICE has teamed up with the NOH8 Project to bring you an in-depth cover feature and photo exhibition at the Duane Reed Gallery. We are also working with Lumen to host a red carpet event during the Oscar telecast. We hope you will join us for these super-fun events in March. 　

Cheers,

DARIN SLYMAN, PUBLISHER