For something hotter than coffee on your coffee table, pick up a copy of Brief Encounters ( $43.99, www.brunogmuender.com ) . Fashion editor Jason Salzenstein has gathered the best-known brands and introduces them with short but informing texts; long disquisitions would be redundant, since the spectacular images of the advertising campaigns speak a clear language. If you are a fan of briefs already, you shouldn't wait to get your copy. But of course this book has plenty to offer for everybody else as well: Designers have long ago realized that gay men are a grateful target group—and they allure us with perfectly trained top models and fantastic campaigns.

It's a scream

Chicago's premier LGBT-comedy company, GayCo Productions, has more than Kindles and AppleTVs to set beneath the tree this year. Their second original holiday revue, Scream If You Love Christmas, unwraps like an explosion of tinsel-laden satire on the one time of year that has everyone shrieking... in ecstasy or in pain. The show opens Thursday, December 9 at Annoyance Theatre and runs through Dec. 30. It is written and performed by Kelly Beeman, Jim Bennett, Kathy Betts, Judy Fabjance, Clay Goodpasture, Vincent Kracht, and Nightspots columnist Homer Marrs.