Hispanic Heritage Month is a glorious time to honor the rich traditions of the proud Latin and Hispanic cultures. It is the perfect time to celebrate and honor the history, contributions, and flavors of people who mean so much to the world.

To toast the time in epic style, Astral Tequila elevates the moment with the Real House Margarita. And, it’s not just another drink. This is a meaningful cocktail. Every sip of an Astral Tequila Margarita helps build homes in Mexico through the brand’s Adobe Brick Project, making it a ‘Real’ House Margarita and the perfect way to toast to Hispanic Heritage Month.

Martha Jiménez Cardoso, Astral’s Director of Sustainability, who has turned her passion for engineering into a career that gives back to her local community in Mexico. It is something that deserves great applause.

The Adobe Brick Project combines spent agave fibers from tequila distillation with earth and liquid runoff from the distillery to create Adobe bricks which are then used to build homes for families in need in Jalisco, Mexico. Each bottle of Astral Tequila produced helps create two bricks, so every sip matters. In fact, Astral Tequila is thrilled to announce the completion of 10 houses alongside Habitat for Humanity Mexico, providing homes for families in need in Jalisco.

Try the drink at home today and honor Hispanic Heritage Month in the most wonderful way.

Real House Margarita

Ingredients:

1.5 oz Astral Tequila Blanco

0.5 oz Lime Juice

0.5 oz Agave Nectar

Club Soda

Preparation: Add Astral Tequila Blanco, fresh lime juice and agave nectar to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into an ice-filled rocks glass. Top with club soda and garnish with a lime wheel or twist.

Garnish: Lime Wheel or Twist

Glassware: Rocks Glass

Everything about Astral Tequila is truly out of this world. There are three expressions for you to try during this fantastic occasion. Drink in crafted cocktails or just sip neat for the ultimate and divine experience.

ASTRAL TEQUILA BLANCO – Astral Tequila is made with 100% Blue Weber Agave, slowly nurtured by the cyclical passing of warm daylight skies and cool luminous nights, where the sun and the stars meet.

Astral Blanco is complex yet smooth, with notes of crisp citrus, clover honey, and bright white pepper, with underlying agave and an abundance of tropical fruit.

ASTRAL TEQUILA REPOSADO – Aged for 5 months in single use American oak bourbon barrels, Astral Reposado includes notes of agave, caramel, and oak.

ASTRAL TEQUILA AÑEJO – Aged for 12 months in single use American oak bourbon barrels, Astral Añejo includes notes of vanilla, butterscotch, and oak.

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(Photo by Honor the Earth)

On Tuesday September 19, 2023, the Indigenous peoples took to the frontlines of the climate crisis on Turtle Island and took over Times Square painting a giant mural with the message, “No Green Colonialism; Land Back NOW!”

This mural came the day before the UN Climate Ambition Summit, where world leaders are expected to come together and make decisions around the climate crisis.

The Indigenous communities are organizing to push back on the Biden Administration’s push toward solutions to the climate crisis that threaten the lives of Indigenous people across Turtle Island, which they call “Green Colonialism.” “For too long, Native lands and communities have borne the brunt of harm from mining and other extractive industries. As the federal government moves to support clean energy development, this cannot come at the expense of clean water or Indigenous rights. This familiar assault on Native lands and communities is another wave of colonialism, and we will not stand by and allow our lands to be sacrificed,” Krystal Two Bulls,  executive director of the national Indigenous organization Honor the Earth said in a press release.

The mining projects violate treaty rights and threaten clean water and land in places such as Thacker Pass, Oak Flat , and the Talon-Tamarak mine near the Mississippi headwaters.

We should all be fighting this fight!

On Thursday, July 27, the Hope for Depression Research Foundation launched the 5^th annual Week of Hope, a village-wide effort in Southampton, NY, to raise mental health awareness.  Over 100 businesses will display a large, yellow HOPE balloon in front of their doors to symbolize their commitment to advancing the conversation about mental health. In addition, participating stores provided special hand-outs from HDRF, with the latest information on depression in the U.S. and how to spot signs and symptoms.

Newly elected Southampton Village Mayor William Manger Jr., HDRF founder Audrey Gruss,  and Executive Director Louisa Benton kicked off the campaign by placing the first HOPE balloon in front of the Veronica Beard Southampton store. Mayor Manger, Gruss and Benton were joined by track coach Eddie Arnold and a cadre of teen athletes from Southampton High School to help bring the bright yellow balloons to the store owners including LoveShack Fancy, Ovando, Poupette St. Barth, and Veronica Beard, a major HDRF sponsor.

The Week of Hope also features a Hope Summer Seminar “How to Talk to Friends and Family About Mental Health,” with acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Samantha Boardman at the Southampton Arts Center on Friday, August 4^th. You can learn more here. In addition, now through August 6^th, the Veronica Beard store on Main Street will hold Shop for Hope, where ten percent of all purchases will go to HDRF’s life-saving research.

It all culminates with this year’s 8th Annual Southampton Race of Hope on Sunday, August 6 at 8:30 AM around Lake Agawam, a race that attracts over 500 participants to unite and raise funds for depression research. The Co-Grand Marshals of the Race of Hope are Audrey Gruss and Arthur Dunnam, who is an HDRF Advisory Board member and resides in East Hampton. The Teen Grand Marshals of the Race are Grier Hammond Henchy, the 17-year-old daughter of Brooke Shields, and Hayden Lucas, an NYC high school senior and leader of the newly formed HDRF Teen Task Force.

All 100% of revenues from the Race go to groundbreaking research into the root causes of depression in the brain and new and better treatments. To sign up or learn more, please visit the website at hopefordepression.org

Photo Credit: R. Cole for Rob Rich/SocietyAllure.com

If you never heard of a restaurant/bar called Milady’s on Prince Street, you’ll know it now!  That’s where Richard Jay-Alexander chose to celebrate his 70th Birthday and it was truly a WOWZA evening…the setting, the food, the peonies, the curated music PLAYLIST (assembled by longtime friend and assistant, Nellie Beavers), the craft cocktails and even a film crew (led by longtime pal, Brian Morgan) in the back, taping BRAVO-style “confessionals” with each guest, about the BIRTHDAY BOY.  The guests in attendance ranged in age and interests, like a perfect jambalaya of an accomplished life.  Even friends from his High School, in Solvay, NY!  The most impressive part of who Richard is was quickly revealed in his post “blowing out the candles of his cake” moment when he looked around the room (clearly moved) and explained that the reason we were all there was, “because I have a story with each and every one of you.”  Needless to say, there was much talent present throughout the room and plenty of legendary New Yorkers, raising a glass to a pretty special guy.  In reality, it is he that entered into our lives and our stories and happily so.  This is how you do it!

RICHARD JAY-ALEXANDER

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RICHARD JAY-ALEXANDER

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A fun way to get active, learn and have fun: InterContinental New York Times Square has partnered with Broadway Up Close to provide monthly dance workshops. The new series offers the opportunity to learn choreography with current Broadway professionals, and to join them in conversation about their Broadway careers.

Sunday, May 13, 2023 – Broadway Performer Thayne Jasperson (Hamilton, Newsies, Matilda)

All classes are scheduled from 11:00 am to 12:30 pm and include 60 minutes of dance class and 30 minutes to learn and connect.

Following the class, an à la carte lunch menu is provided at The Stinger Cocktail Bar & Kitchen for an additional cost; perfect timing for a matinee performance.