Arts & Entertainment
Bright Light Bright Light announces album, drops single

Bright Light Bright Light (aka Rod Thomas) celebrated the announcement of his upcoming album “Fun City” over the weekend with the release of its first single, “This Was My House.”
The Welsh international pop star has been a staple of the international LGBTQ+ music scene for over a decade, with three previous albums under his belt – as well as numerous tours, both a solo artist and has support alongside pop royalty like Elton John, Cher, Erasure, Ellie Goulding and The Scissor Sisters. He curates, hosts and serves as the DJ for regular afternoon dance parties in Brooklyn and Manhattan, and uses his music as a platform for equality, raising fund for organizations such as The Trevor Project, Ali Forney Center, Hetrick-Martin Institute, ACLU, and Elton John AIDS Foundation.
The new single is described by the artist as “a sugar-rush of dancefloor pop” and features longtime Madonna backing vocalist duo Niki Haris and Donna De Lory. Produced by Initial Talk (known for his recent reimaginings of Dua Lipa, Janet Jackson and other pop artists), “This Was My House” was originally written as a “banner-waving ode to LGBTQ+ safe spaces” but “should ring universally true to individuals worldwide who are struggling to find peace and refuge during the current political climate and public health situation.”
“The song is about how the safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community have been fractured of late with a palpable uprising of anti-LGBTQ+ and xenophobic rhetoric, which is scarily even more real now as these public spaces are closed for the foreseeable future due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” explained Bright Light Bright Lightabout the origins and evolution of the song. “LGBTQ+ people – most notably trans women – are attacked and killed at an alarming rate, and so this song is a fierce statement that every living person deserves to feel safe in the place they call home, whoever you may be.”
As for “Fun City,” the artist calls it a “meticulously crafted collection of ’80s-inspired disco-pop” that he “built as a statement of perseverance during restless times.” Drawing sonic inspiration from the legacy of iconic LGBTQ+ artists like Sylvester, Erasure, Scissor Sisters, and Hercules & Love Affair, the album “aims to capture the spirit of the queer trailblazers” that came before him, and examines “the ways marginalized people stay strong, focused and creative through times of social and political hardships.”
“The idea of a deeply flawed but still beautiful world is what the album is about, so I thought it was a fitting image for how the LGBTQ+ world has had to find laughter and solidarity in face of prejudice through history, dancing through pain and living for love in spite of hate,” he says.
With vocals recorded on the empty dancefloor of East Village gay club Bedlam, “Fun City” will be released by Bright Light Bright Light’s own label YSKWN!, in partnership with Megaforce Records and The Orchard, and will include collaborations with a yet-to-be-announced “who’s who” of LGBTQ+ icons and musical trailblazers.
It drops on September 18. You can listen to the new track below.
The 2026 World Pride March was held on Saturday, Aug. 8 in Amsterdam. Tens of thousands of thousand participants marched from Martin Luther Kingpark to the grounds of the Pride Village at Museumplein.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)








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The weekly drag show “Daddy Issues” was held at Kiki on Wednesday, Aug. 5. Performers included Evry Pleasure, Indiana Bones and Tiara Missou-Sidora.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)









Books
Something’s off about Dad. When is it time to step in?
‘When Memory Fades’ can help when families face dementia
‘When Memory Fades’
By Nathaniel Chin, MD
c.2026, St. Martin’s Essentials
$30/422 pages
Mom called you in a panic the other day.
She’d lost her keys and by the time you arrived to help, she’d found them. In the refrigerator.
These kinds of things keep happening, not often but often enough, and you don’t know quite what to worry about. But in the new book “When Memory Fades” by Nathaniel Chin, MD, you’ll learn about the journey ahead, for both of you.
You can’t remember why you walked into a room. You got lost last week, going to the bank. Popular wisdom says that things like that are normal as we age, but Chin says that’s not true – although the answer may not be a worst-case scenario, either. Yes, memory problems could just be signs of stress, dehydration, or lack of sleep – or is it time to see a doctor?
Chin says maybe, yes.
He was working his way through medical residency when his father, a geriatrician in Madison, Wisc., was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Chin, now a geriatrician, was blindsided, but that diagnosis also changed his life.
Here, he writes about the brain, and how Alzheimer’s and dementia are diagnosed, explaining that dementia has many faces and, depending on a doctor’s evaluation, memory problems might be slowed or improved. He shares his father’s illness with readers, but he also writes about his mother, a steadfast, steady caretaker.
Her story reminds reader-guardians to care for themselves, too.
Know how to talk the talk, so that you can have “a more productive” conversation with your doctor. Understand that there’s nothing “normal” about dementia or Alzheimer’s. Know the statistics – African Americans are affected with dementia twice as much as whites – and know how to lower your risks. Learn here what questions to ask, how to break the news to everyone, and any legal matters that will be important soon. And know how to tend to you.
Says Chin, “The best action you can take is to educate yourself… The more you understand, the better equipped you are to make sound judgments.”
Something’s off about Dad, just a lot of little things that don’t add up. When is it time to step in? “When Memory Fades” can help you decide.
Wise, wide-spread, comprehensive, and compassionately helpful, this is a book you can read and then take it to the doctor with your loved one. It’s a book that makes sense when nothing else does, and its biggest feature is that it smoothly transitions from easy-to-grasp science and charts, to gentle coaching for caregivers. Author Nathaniel Chin, MD writes with storytelling, humility, grace, and experience from both sides of the Alzheimer’s/dementia issue, and his words are reassuring but also urgent. Learn, but don’t wait, he says. Know how to safeguard yourself. See your doctor, and don’t fear testing. Watch for signs of depression. And never, ever stop asking for help.
Read those last seven words, and find “When Memory Fades” now. It’s a book to have on your shelf, whether you’re 45 or 95 because, as you’ll see, dementia happens and knowledge is key.
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