Brett Berk

Glee returned to fine form this week, praise Cheesus, with an episode that dealt with questions of illness, death, and faith in a surprisingly mature–though appropriately adolescent–fashion. Of course, I covered it for my weekly Glee-cap over at Vanity Fair. Click on the word God to head over there.

There was another special Glee single-artist episode last night, this one focused on the works of the Britney Spears. Unfortunately, just like the Madonna special episode, it sucked. Fortunately, I was still able to write about it for Vanity Fair.

The folks at BMW were foolish nice enough to invite me down to South Carolina to learn how to really drive a car–on a track, at their Performance Driving School. They were also uncaring enough about their possessions kind enough to let me borrow one of their zipy Z4 s35i Roadsters to drive down there from New York. I was smart enough to learn something from the experience. But don’t think that doesn’t mean I didn’t spin around in circles a million times on a wet skid-pad, because I did. Read all about it in my big gay car column over at Vanity Fair.

I have a pair of inter-related pieces out in Time Out New York today about my favorite of favorite New York neighborhoods (and my home of fifteen years.) One is on The East Village and the other is on The Lower East Side, and both contain suggestions and recommendations from long-term residents, fixtures, and characters on the moods, communities, and places that make their neighborhood unique. Click the neighborhood names above to read.

The second season of Glee premiered last night. Which means, of course, that my…unique perspective on the show will now resume haunting the virtual halls of Vanity Fair every Wednesday. The fall’s first Gay Guide to Glee is now officially up. So click on over to VF.com and read about how the show got its groove back.

The New York Public Library’s flagship branch (the one with the big lions outside of it) on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street will be hosting a special one-day only event on Wednesday, September 22. Celebrating the opening of their recently acquired (and cataloged!) archives of the health and social service organization Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the show will consist of six vitrines full of ephemera–pamphlets, comics, posters, videos–from GMHC’s early years combating the AIDS crisis. The show is open all day, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner (Angels in America) will give a keynote speech in the evening. For details, and indelible images from the collection, check out my piece over at Vanity Fair.

Dot-Marie Jones plays new boys’ football coach Shannon Beiste (pronounced, Beast) on the upcoming second season of the Gayest Show on Earth: GLEE! In my role as Vanity Fair‘s resident Glee-expert, I gave Dot a call and talked to her about how she got out of law enforcement and into being a warrior, and how this eventually led to her current position. Huh? Click here and be elucidated.

The Cadillac CTS-V Coupe is gorgeously wedgy and blisteringly fast. And you can shave your balls with it.

My full manscaping review of this spectacular vehicle at the Vanity Fair website.

A Federal judge in California found the military’s inscrutable and insupportable Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy to be unconstitutional on a number of grounds. What does this mean for the Military Wedding Industry? Find out in my spot-on analysis of the decision for the Vanity Fair website by clicking this pretty blue bit. (BONUS NOTE: The VF.com piece contains a bigger version of this photo of soldiers spelling “DICK” with their bodies.)