Late January in the Catskill Mountains favors clarity. The noise fades, the temperature drops, and pretense struggles to survive. Roxbury Haus meets the season properly: clean lines, disciplined warmth, and a bar that rewards competence. The Cocky Cowboy—my fine-art character—commands the bar with composed authority, proving that real power moves quietly. Sagebrush Buckaroo: Gay […]
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I arrived in New Paltz hungry, under-caffeinated, and emotionally prepared for greatness. Little Loaf Bakeshop delivered with precision and personality. This place operates as a queer landmark disguised as a bakery, and as a roaming Hudson Valley queer artist with opinions, I felt immediately seen. Little Loaf Bakeshop: Queer, Glorious, and Carb-Blessed in New […]
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LGBTQ+ winter travel in the Hudson Valley and Catskills has shed its “quiet season” reputation, emerging instead as a vibrant, high-design playground for the community. Forget the predictable city circuits—this winter is about the “Queer Zen” of a frost-dusted forest, the architectural thrill of a glass-walled sanctuary, and the unapologetic joy of a crisp […]
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The Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains have quietly become the new frontier for queer creative expression. Far from the clichés of rugged masculinity and sanitized nostalgia, a different vision of Americana is emerging—one that centers the nude male body, erotic intelligence, and self-possession as cultural force. At the center of this shift stands Cocky […]
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Modern masculinity has been sold as a costume: stoic, armored, heterosexual by default, and terrified of tenderness. My work exists to break that costume open from the inside—using the male form, desire, and beauty as proof that strength has always had a wider vocabulary than patriarchy allowed. Across my writing for Hudson Valley Style […]
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The Hudson Valley has long symbolized creativity, culture, and the slow-living ideal so many people crave. Yet beneath the region’s beauty lies a deepening crisis that mirrors a nationwide trend: chronic depression, persistent loneliness, and a dramatic collapse in real-world social life, especially among younger adults. The Silent Epidemic: Chronic Depression, Loneliness, and the […]
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Liberation grows stronger when we, the people, reclaim our bodies, our beauty, and our joy on our own terms. Homoerotic art has always carried that truth. It is more than provocation. It is evidence. It shows that queer bodies hold beauty worth honoring, that queer joy refuses to be regulated by fragile moralities or […]
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The sun melts behind the Catskills like it’s posing for me—because honestly, it is. There’s something delicious about leaning on a wooden deck in my white denim and black leather gloves while the mountains glow as if they know they’re part of a fashion set. I’ve explored this terrain before in our Saddle Up […]
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American culture has developed a remarkable talent for sedation. Beige interiors, flattened masculinity, and algorithm-approved personalities have replaced risk, appetite, and imagination. The result feels less like a civilization and more like a waiting room—polite, airless, and afraid of its own pulse. Queer art has always been the antidote to that condition, and my […]
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So, picture this: I’m in the dentist’s chair, the drill is humming, and the doc’s leaning in like a NASA engineer trying to launch anesthesia into orbit. Three syringes later, I can still feel every nerve screaming “Good morning!” from tooth #18. Then she squints, looks at my hair, and says, “Ohhh… that explains […]
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The first thing I felt was the sun. It slipped between the curtains of my cabin like a slow, deliberate lover, its golden fingers brushing my bare chest, tracing the ridges of muscle, pausing—just so—over the thrum of my heart. There’s a certain way morning light touches you when the mountains are your only […]
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The Shawangunks don’t exactly scrape the sky—let’s be real, they’re flat as a cowboy’s first pancake, but when that golden Hudson Valley sunset hits them just right, it’ll make you swear you’re looking at Olympus. That’s exactly where I was, up at the Shawangunk Mountains Cabin, when the evening light dared me to craft […]
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My dear readers, you might be a little surprised to see me here in the pages of Hudson Valley Style Magazine. After all, I’ve spent my life in scrubs, not silk scarves, and my domain has always been the operating room. So why am I suddenly leading a conversation on something that seems, at […]
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There’s something quietly magnetic about the Hudson Valley. Maybe it’s the rolling Catskill Mountains or the way morning fog lazily lifts over the Hudson River like a curtain revealing a masterpiece. But behind the scenery, a new kind of tourism is taking root—one that’s more sustainable, community-driven, and deliciously local. And at the center […]
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Burnout has become the silent epidemic of modern life, fueled by nonstop work, digital overload, and the pressure to always perform. In this installment of the Emotional Wellness Series at Hudson Valley Style Magazine, presented by BAYSYL, Wellness and Longevity Coach Maxwell Alexander explores the deeper roots of burnout—how trauma, identity, and the noise […]
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Some issues of Hudson Valley Style Magazine are good. Some are great. And then there are the ones that crystallize everything we stand for into a single, unmissable artifact. The Culinary Wellness Edition is that artifact — and it’s no exaggeration to call it a Maxwell Alexander masterstroke. The Culinary Wellness Edition: A Maxwell […]
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In a world running at full volume, emotional wellness isn’t a luxury—it’s a lifeline. That’s why BAYSYL, a next-gen wellness brand rooted in nature and backed by science, is teaming up with Hudson Valley Style Magazine (HVSM) to launch a bold, human-first collaboration: the Emotional Wellness Series. Emotional Wellness, Reimagined: BAYSYL and Hudson Valley […]
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A New Era of Inclusive Wellness // As bustling cityscapes evolve and the need for mental clarity grows louder, a serene movement is quietly unfolding. More and more LGBTQ+ folks are seeking peace and purpose through queer-friendly wellness retreats in the Hudson Valley and the Catskills. It’s not just about escaping the noise—it’s about […]
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