Bloggers and Contributors

Michael Burtch is a Taurus, and as such, is opinionated, self-indulgent, argumentative, bull headed, modest and extremely good looking. He put that trait to use in January of 2010, becoming one of the first openly HIV+ Fab Boys in the Toronto Magazine’s 16 odd year history. His handsome mug has appeared all over the blogosphere as well, including Macleans.ca. His fundraising and grassroots activism has landed him multiple times in newspapers such as 24 Hours and Capital Xtra.

t was actually in the pages of the community newsletter The Blackburn Banner that Michael’s poor Mother first learned her son was positive. She had to read it, along with 4000 other people, in black and white one morning over her bacon and eggs. Shamefully, Michael will go to great lengths to avoid confrontation, twice breaking up with boyfriends by text and e-mail. He is also a ‘star fish’ in bed (he just lays there) but being so handsome, the tattooed hunk has never needed to be particularly good in bed. Michael’s life ambition is to learn how to play the guitar

A banker turned AIDS activist turned country bumpkin. A dog owner. A published photographer. A gay guy who feels like a tourist on Church Street, even though he lived there once. A lover of bad puns. A pop culture junkie. A compulsive Live Journal blogger with 3,000 entries to his name and counting. A lover of sherbet lemons and all things sweet (also likes grilled cheese sandwiches and all things unhealthy. )

A one-time collector of Mr. Peanut memorabilia. Hitched for twenty-eight years. Bad at sports, even worse at Scrabble. Shy, but you wouldn’t know it. A survivor, practicing the art of growing old gracefully. And a patient who says ahhhh when asked, and takes his pills like a trooper, but doesn’t let a little thing like a twenty-year relationship with HIV define his life.

Alphonso King has built quite a name for himself as DJ Relentless. Originally from Tampa, Florida, Relentless started in radio with his uncle Herb King in 1980.

With 30 years of DJ experience under his belt and a vast wealth of musical knowledge, Relentless is still very much in demand. From radio mixshows to international gigs all over the world, Relentless has forged a signature style that has influenced the music industry. Having witnessed the landscape of New York nightlife’s ebb and flow over the past 17 years, he recently relocated to Toronto.

As a recording artist King began his career in 1997 as his alter ego, Jade Elektra, with the release of his first 12” single “Why Are You Gaggin’?” . Soon after, “Bitch You Look Fierce” and “How Do I Look” became underground dance and runway favorites from New York to London, and as DJ Relentless he released “House Is Alive” with UK producers Loop Da Funk in 2008. (all available on iTunes).

You can currently hear Relentless spinning around Toronto at George’s Play, Gladaman’s Den and The Barn.

To learn more, visit his website http://www.djrelentless.com.

Brian Finch’s, Editor-in-Chief, corner to report on activities, events, fundraisers and everything in between. Does your AIDS Service Organization or community-based organization have an event about which you’d like to inform our readers?

If so please feel free to contact us at Brian Finch Contact

Philip Minaker, originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is a multi-dimensional entrepreneur, who has been apart of the fashion trade for over two decades. His experiences have encompassed a wide variety of roles and responsibilities within a diverse spectrum of designer labels, retailers and institutions.

Throughout his career as a visual artist and window dresser, Philip has worked with hundreds of different companies, from locally to internationally renown. His ability to make individuals also look their personal best is well documented in various sales and management roles with the likes of Eaton’s, Mondi, Parachute and B.C.B.G.

While managing The Bay’s Queen Street Women’s Bridge Designer Shop for seven years, Philip also served as the stores resident Fashion Consultant working intimately with various celebrities and high profile professionals. His Style Seminars and Public Speaking Engagements have also been positively received and critiqued as informative, entertaining and insightful by large corporations, organizations and various institutions for men and women alike. Philip also dabbles with design with his own millinery creations in his spare time.

He is now living in Toronto and working independently as a writer, stylist and mad-hatter. He is also a good sport and plays competitive volleyball as a long-standing member of the Toronto Spartan Volleyball League.

Don Short, Toronto born but raised on an island, has been actively engaged in a creative outflow of work, life and family… and still is. To peek into his toolbox would reveal a kaleidoscope of projects that combine art, writings, and public speaking. To peek into his typical work day, he would be wrapping his head around the ongoing complexity of the HIV experience, while helping others to do the same.

With over 20 years in the visual arts, age and experience has resulted in provincial and national recognition for his paintings, murals and art instruction. He holds two certificates in visual arts, a diploma in graphic layout and design, and has received many awards for his accomplishments. His output of artwork results in enjoyable, relevant images that present a positive, poetic interpretation of life.

After being diagnosed HIV Positive in January 2006, Don realized that Art and HIV can mix. Don was the winner of the 2009 Scotia Bank AIDS Walk for LIFE Artwork Competition and also the CAS 2010 Polar Ice Vodka Label Competition (Special Edition bottle available in Sept 2010). Both of these winning images reflect snippets of the HIV experience in Canada.

Don currently works as Program Coordinator for The AIDS Committee of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Danny Miller, still looking very rock star at 34 (as long as there is Botox and Miss Clairol, I will be young and beautiful forever) resides in his small hometown of Lusby Maryland on the Chesapeake Bay, about an hour south of Washington DC. After roaming around the country from city to city for 15 years, he is back where he began.

Diagnosed with HIV and Hep B in April of 2007, and knocking on deaths door in the winter of 2008, Danny has a new purpose in life. THE EXTINCTION OF IGNORANCE!!

He currently works as a peer group facilitator/ outreach supervisor for a gay men's outreach program called RISE. The main goal of RISE is to reach out to gay men living in rural , oppressed areas and show them that "gay is OK". To teach them to combat both internal and external homophobia. To speak to themselves with kindness, and ways of living and enjoying life in a safe and healthy way.

Danny also sits as a co-chair for The Southern Maryland Regional Advisory Committee of the Infectious Disease & Environmental Health Administration.

Danny loves his books, his cat, and is addicted to black nail polish and eye liner, and of course, The Beatles.