Articles by Gary | Ask Uncle Gary

Retirement Isn’t the End of Relevance, It’s Your Next Reinvention

By Gary Domasin Retirement has always been sold to us as an ending, a quiet exit, a slowing down, a polite step out of the spotlight. I’ve never quite understood that idea, mostly because my own life has refused to follow that narrative. If anything, retirement is freedom. It’s the moment when you finally decide how your experience, talent, and curiosity continue to show up in the world. Staying relevant after retirement isn’t about pretending you’re still thirty. It’s about

Eleven Months Later

Altadena, CA. Nearly a year after the Eaton Fire carved its way through the foothills, the town is still living in its shadow. Eleven months sounds like enough time for life to snap back into place, but for many families, the calendar doesn’t match reality. People are still scattered across borrowed bedrooms, spare couches, and motel rooms that were never meant to be home. Entire neighborhoods feel like they’re holding their breath.

Skepticism isn’t cynicism

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately asking myself how we decide what’s true. Not in the abstract, but in the everyday moments when you open a browser, type in a question, and get an answer in seconds. What exactly are you trusting in that moment, and why? The answer isn’t simple. Even for people who pride themselves on being curious, educated, and careful thinkers, separating signal from noise has become harder than ever.

The Universe Is Not Locally Real

Every once in a while, science drops a truth bomb so big it rattles the bones of everything we thought we knew. Here's one of them. The universe is not locally real. A Nobel Prize confirmed statement. Not a poet. Not a guru. Not a barefoot monk on a mountain. A physicist.

People who grew up in the 1970s

There’s something unmistakably different about people who grew up in the 1970s. That decade didn’t just shape a generation; it forged a particular kind of resilience that psychologists are still trying to name. But if you've lived it, you already know exactly what I’m talking about.

Big News!

The sun just got a little warmer, the vibes a whole lot sharper, and the advice? Well… it just got real. Ask Uncle Gary has officially landed at SoCal Magazine , Southern California’s Cultural Portal, and is now the proud home of the most straight-talking, heart-listening advice column on the West Coast. From Palm Springs to Pasadena, we’re serving wisdom with a wink, truth with a twist, and compassion with just enough sass to keep things interesting. These are the questions

This Week on Ask Uncle Gary

Why Some People Quietly Steal the Room (and How You Can Too) Ever notice how certain people walk in and the air changes? Not because they’re shouting or peacocking, but because something about them just lands. They’ve got that invisible pull. The kind that can’t be bottled, branded, or posted with a #mindset caption. Everyone talks about charisma like it’s a genetic gift. It’s not. It’s learned. Practiced. Built from habits so small they barely look like effort. The Real Sec

The Slow Death of Critical Thinking

I came across a line that stopped me cold: “You can silence fifty scholars with one fact, but you can’t silence one fool with fifty facts.” - This quote’s authorship is uncertain. It captures the tragedy of our time perfectly. Because when critical thinking dies, collective foolishness fills the void. Everyone becomes an expert. Everyone is convinced they’re right, and everyone else, naturally, is wrong. Opinions drown out logic, emotions overrun evidence, and noise masque

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Gary Domasin has lived many chapters. Raised around Hollywood back lots in the ’60s, he danced on Broadway, rode the Beverly Hills fitness boom of the ’80s, and trained celebrities including Tim Curry and Jennifer Aniston. Along the way, he built careers in performance, fitness, hypnotherapy, and film and television hair & makeup.

Today, Gary teaches theatrical stage makeup at USC’s School of Dramatic Arts, does hair at Salon Aguayo, and writes for SoCalMag.com, where "Ask Uncle Gary" offers clarity without clichés. Blending humor, experience, and real-world perspective.

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