Out # 198 - October 2010

14 CONTRIBUTORS & INFLUENCES
16 LETTERS
18 EDITOR'S LETTER
20 BY THE NUMBERS
FOREGROUND
29 BILLY PORTER
With a new role in this fall's Angels in America revival, the Broadway vet has finally bagged his dream job.
34 CAN I BE BLUNT?
Kristen Jonnston gets loose-lipped.
36 THE BIG CHILL
West Coast dreamwaver Baths brings the beats and the blues on his ambient new album, Cerulean.
38 LIFE OF THE PARTY
A celebratory look back at the psychedelic, gender-bending madness of art troupe assume vivid astro focus
41 MAN BEHIND THE MYTH
Mark Beard has uncovered some of the most skillful, sexually charged male portraits of the last century. Or has he?
42 HOMO PLUS
Brad Goreski's L.A. stomping grounds
44 LIVE THE LIFE
Malcom X: well-suited traveler
46 YOU SHOULD KNOW BITTERS
How to mix, make, and serve the ultimate cocktail ingredient
49 KITCHEN 411
Belle jars: the art of pickling
54 GENTLEMANLY PURSUITS
Saddle up.
56 PREP COOL
Michael Bastian breathes sexy new life into a fashion brand classic.
58 WEST SIDE STORY
Exploring the great gay American hinterlands. Plus: four fall hikes
SYMPOSIUM
Dispatches from the front lines of contemporary culture
65 LAND'S END
Michael Cunningham on his new novel, By Nightfall, and the home The Hours built
67 FILE UNDER STUD
Samuel Steward: the original sexual renegade
68 THE PHOTOGRAPH
A writer discovers his homophobic father's one gay exception.
THIS MONTH ON OUT.COM
MORE NICKI MINAJ!
Check out behind-the-scenes footage and an exclu'sivevideo interview withNicki Minaj at our October cover shoot.
I WANT MY OUT TV
Catch video interviews with Swedish pop star Robyn, Maroon 5's Adam Levine, Keane's Tom Chaplin, Sky Ferreira, Baths, and more.
FEATURES
70 OUT'S 2010 TASTEMAKERS
A day in the life of io gay visionaries
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDY RYAN
82 DR. PEPPER
For his new men's fragrance, Bang, Mark Jacobs calls on scent expert Yann Vasnier to spice things up.
BY JOSHUA DAVID STEIN PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADAM KRAUSE
86 HERB RITTS REMEMBERED
A new book peers into the glamorous, rarefied world of the legendary photographer.
BY RAY ROGERS
90 DARLING NICKI
She's got a closet full of two-tone wigs, a knack for clever wordplay, and more alter egos than an entire season of RuPaul's Drag Race. So who is this Nicki Minaj? We tap into the strange little world of hip-hop's next big star.
BY CARYN GANZ PHOTOGRAPHY BY GL WOOD
FASHION
96 RIO GRAND
Boys will be boys.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL ROBERTS
DEPARTMENTS
106 SURVEILLANCE
Our guide to the finer things in life: a lamp for bookworms, a charger for tech geeks, a shredder for neat freaks
111 STORE INFO
112 MODEL CITIZEN
Genaro Perez strikes a pose.