It's dark and gloomy in New York City today but you don't have to be (dark and gloomy). Sure, the recent events from North Carolina and all the buzzing from Biden and Obama to Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton seem to have given every homophobe in the country reason to be openly hateful (and stupid) but hey at least the public - the ones that are somewhere in the middle on their opinion of teh gayz and same-sex marriage are seeing what we've seen all along - just how rude and ugly things are for us.
Contrary to others who are wishing them to stop - I hope every homophobe weighs in with their crazy opinion so that the world can really see what they sound like - because sometimes when it's a comment here and a comment there, I think the general American public just doesn't really get how awful they themselves sound.
Naturally this will be validation for some (ie a public figure institutionalizing homophobia) but I think, in the end, these open and virulent attacks simply underscore the need for laws in place to protect the LGBT community. And of course they wouldn't be quite so intense if this rapidly shrinking group of people didn't on some level recognize that the time of this being acceptable conversation is, at last, over. No one fights harder than when they know the end is near.
And for some, especially closet cases *coughRickSantorumcough* being anti-gay is the shield they protect themselves with against having to deal with the truth of their own selves. I'd rather think that they are simply lashing out at us out of a sense of self-presevation (not because the LGBT community will cause -what nonsense- the end of humanity, but in the fragile protection that being anti-gay gives them) than that they are just batshit crazy or downright mean.
To wash away this negativity, please take a few minutes to watch this video made by the cast of ANYTHING GOES. It's a lip-sync of "What Makes You Beautiful" by One Direction. I want to meet the hottie with the shaved head.. he seems like he's awesomely fun! :)
I'm not going to go into great depth of what I was doing walking through the Pines this past Sunday morning at 6:15AM, but you can probably make an educated guess. I was clothed and I wasn't alone if that helps. :)
Anyway, for those Fire Islanders who are, like me, in love with the island the most when the sun is rising and all the little ones have let their heads land softly on the pillow (as well as those whose heads are on the pillow but they ain't exactly sleeping), it is an opportunity to enjoy, admire, drink in, the natural beauty of the place at a time when there is little other kinds of beauty to distract from it.
The stillness of the air around the blossoming complex, even on a windy day, washed over me refreshing my soul with the promise of new adventures to come. I could relate. My life, like the Pavilion complex, had sort of burned down and was in the middle of a fresh, hard won reconstruction.
I hoped, for my own sake, that the new complex would both improve on the clunky rebuilt pavilion of the recent past (I always felt it lacked any kind of character at all - you could be on any dance floor in the world - and that's fine for an Arby's but not so much for the Pine's party focal point) and the Pavilion that everyone remembers from the past few decades (maybe without the feeling as though the entire enterprise might collapse with one strong wind). I sure hoped so. If I'm feeling a sort of sudden kinship with the new building, I want the finished product to be the best of all possible worlds (with apologies to Candide). :)
As we moved past the site, the morning sun streamed in through the wooden beams creating a sort of halo effect. The building bathed in the glorious spring. I wanted to enjoy it as long as I could. I had seen the construction site on my way in on Saturday afternoon (the pic above) but the morning light gave it a life it had lacked before.
The boardwalk reflected the morning sun with dazzling patches of orange creating a sort of road of light leading back to the house where I was staying, visiting a friend who was celebrating his 55th birthday at a big blowout party the night before.
The party itself had been the best kind of Fire Island event - music, lights, great looking men, great food and free flowing liquor. The night had been cool, but what better incentive to find someone nice to curl up with?
After a kind of morning nap, I turned to more drinks and a walk on the beach picking up seashells (the left pic), a perfect, contemplative end to a 'go with the flow' kind of experience.
You see, this is, I think, when Fire Island is at it's best. When it's not about high tea or low tea and all that "showing off" crap that, for me, gets old real fast.
For me, it's best when it's about hanging out with friends and meeting fun, new, interesting people. When everyone pitches in and cleans up the party house the next morning while sipping cocktails and dancing to high energy music. When even mopping the floor and tearing up boxes for recycling is fun because of the company enjoyed.
And of course Fire Island is also at it's best when one is walking home at 6:15AM. <G>But maybe that's just me. :)
I found this on the Facebook page of my friend Kevin and I couldn't resist posting it.. it's a fun parody of the "It Gets Better" campaign founded by sex advice columnist Dan Savage. I'm sure we could all relate at one point in our puberty to this situation....
I have a habit of celebrating my birthday not just for a long weekend but sometimes for weeks - and one memorable year I celebrated for two months solid - from the first dinner to the last party.. it was quite an extravaganza. This year it was a little more sedate which means that I celebrated like normal people do - just on the day and maybe a little bit extra.
The party on Wednesday March 7th at The Will Clark Show was the "little extra". And boy was it a blast!
I don't think I could have packed more into the night if I had tried - four guests - Amanda Takehometomother visiting from LA on her way to a week-long nudist event, Justin Luke who joined us with the very first advance copy of the just published GULLIVER TAKES MANHATTAN (formerlly titled GULLIVER TRAVELS), the incredible Kylie Edmond who has been having an amazing year after founding Rock and Rawhide and traveling to Australia (where she had a run in with a kangaroo) and our beneficiary, singer Terry Christopher who, this year, is riding in the Wisconsin AIDS ride which is kind of neat since I'm originally from Wisconsin. :) Plus, Christopher from the Black Party was back selling fortune cookies to benefit the New York ride, Braking the Cycle!
Plus Bingo friend CB Kirby dropped by to present me with a certificate of appreciation.. which is a pretty awesome thing.
But the biggest thank you for the success of the night goes to my cohort AB who arranged for the guests to bring special items (like Amanda brought handi-wipes given my advanced age! LOL) and arranged for DJ Chris Padilla to play some of my favorite tunes and, best of all, arranged to bring cupcakes with happy birthday candles.
Most of all, thank you AB for not bringing 48 of them. We would have burned the place down! Seriously, I'm glad that I don't have to face the good times or the challenging times without my pal, AB... and that's a fact.
And you know, I am one of those entertainers who couldn't care less if you know my real age.. I've never shied away from it ... especially when many people in our community didn't get to have many of the birthdays I've been enjoying (and hope to enjoy in the future). You and I owe it to all those that have died because of AIDS or hate crime violence to lead full, amazing, fun lives. You and I owe it to them to live as long and as healthfully as possible. You and I owe it to them to treat life like a banquet. RIGHT?
A few weeks ago I came upon a sandwich board outside a small indie coffee joint in the Village just around the corner from Pieces. Both sides struck me with their sentiment, and as I stood there shooting, one of the coffee house guys came out and asked me what I was doing. I replied a slightly embarrassed "taking a picture" as I suddenly had a vision of an enraged coffee junkie going off on me since I was just taking and wasn't actually coming in to get a cup. Instead of course he just smiled and started talking about Twin Peaks and how bizarre and awesome it was. I didn't realize until later that he might have been flirting with me.
And this I'm afraid is the biggest problem with forgetting that other people don't really know the story that's running through your head. That night I was thinking about that night's Bingo event and hoping it would come off well. I wasn't in a place to accept that someone cute might just think that I'm cute too. Now I really don't know for sure if he was flirting or not (or, as we used to call it, cruising, which is really flirting but with a lot tighter clothes) but it's pretty to think so (yes I shouted out The Sun Also Rises, I can be literary when I want to be! LOL) :)
Anyway, I really liked both of these messages - the Twin Peaks quote just generates excitement (and it's hard to think of Agent Cooper as being the same person as the mentally unbalanced Orson he played on Desperate Housewives) and the other, pushes off those little nasty things in our heads that tells us that we're not good enough. Thought that you might like to hear one or both of these on this first day of Spring (although it really feels more like summer already!)
Earlier this week, the blogosphere blew up over the photo of a Marine's homecoming kiss with his boyfriend. To me, it was on par with the infamous end of WW2 photo of the soldier kissing the nurse ... passionate and genuine. This is a little feature that one of the news programs did on the couple - just ordinary guys in love and a moment captured forever. (BTW I didn't create this graphic, I discovered it on the net, thanks to whomever did put this together) :)
Good morning, peeps! Hope your past week has been a good one.
The other day I was admiring the new Mad Men ad in the subway and, as a lot of men do, coveting the
Don Draper look. I looked at my ratty jeans and my tight t shirt and worn tennis shoes and was struck by the somewhat sad, maybe somewhat charming thought that I was a Don Draper kind of guy trapped on an Archie Andrews budget. Welcome to 21st century New York, right?
The ratty jeans btw were really ratty - a ripped hole along the inside left leg, left over from my "I'm too sexy for underwear" phase (the hole was conveniently - and naturally - away from anywhere that anything popping out would get me arrested but close enough that anyone within a few feet radius who cared to notice would think that something possibly could).
I know this is trivial and probably, for a 48 year old (this Friday March 9th), a bit ridiculous. But lately I've felt the need for a little extra added attention to this kind of stuff. With the job search dragging on and some medical stuff happening with family (not my own absent biological one, my acquired one) I've been a little down in the dumps for the past few weeks, as I've alluded to in past posts.
Let's look at this from a different angle though. A couple weekends ago, New York gym trainer Roman Ragazzi apparently took his own life. For those of you that follow porn, you'll remember that Roman was outed by the New York Post when he was working for Raging Stallion a few years ago as a former Israeli military trainer who worked at the Israeli consulate. Although I didn't ever know Roman personally or professionally, I do know that this caused a lot of problems for him. Whomever outed him really should burn in the deepest darkest pit of hell.
Maybe this happened to Roman, a despondence that life will never progress - and worse, because of being outed, maybe he couldn't go back home.
For me, I am inspired by people like the legendary Jack Wrangler who had a great second act. I am encouraged by the optimism of people like Michael Brandon who have had to overcome some seriously huge obstacles but are emboldened to be a success despite all of that rather than letting their problems overwhelm them.
And I am encouraged by following my old peeps from the porn industry on Facebook, seeing the neat things that they are doing with their lives especially my old friend Cameron Mitchell who is now an enormous (and even hotter than he was 'in the old days') bodybuilder in Chicago who owns his own personal training business.. congrats Cam and Julie!
None of this realization has come easily. But you know, I think that it's actually harder to opt in than opt out and I've never been one to shy away from doing the hard work.
As if on cue, this morning a friend sent me links to these You Tube videos of Idina Menzel's recent concert in Toronto (below). The first one is of course just the right thing to hear given these thoughts and the other, well, it just plain made me laugh out loud.
Now, if you're down in the mouth and I know many of us are, I can't offer you any quick and easy solutions - I don't really have any myself - there are still hundreds/thousands of people looking for work in this city for you know like three or four available jobs, but the key to this really is just to keep on moving forward, getting out of bed in the morning and doing what you need to do to .. opt in. Stay in the game, and don't believe that it won't get better (and if you can't find that kind of positivity in your life, stay out the way of those of us who do!).
Next, I can't embed this clip from HANNAH AND HER SISTERS and the quality is terrible (taken from someone's TV set) but the message is vital and maybe corny and surprisingly, in retrospect, incredibly sentimental and simple given that it's Woody Allen, but, given this time we're living in, necessary viewing.
And as for being a little like Archie.. well, I can think of worse role models - I mean, he's got a lot of people who love him, never ages and currently is showing off his political side (not only are Archie comics featuring a very prominent gay character, but they are also addressing the Occupy Wall Street movement.. very progressive for any "comic book" but especially for Archie). And you know, he's a fellow redhead and I dig my fellow gingers. :)
Good morning peeps! I'm in suburban Delaware working for a friend and I'm finding the suburban life to be kinda awesome. Is it because I'm working or because the friend I'm staying with is a lot of fun to hang with; is it because suburban guys are as fascinated with me, the city guy who runs a weekly show
featuring a variety of LGBT talent as I am with them who have homes, careers, cars and other such enviable lives? When I tell people in NYC what I do, I generally get The Stare of "what kind of weirdo are you?" or The Shoulder Shrug Of "pfft, is that all? Honey, I was in a Broadway show ten years ago- I was one of a hundred chorus people on stage for a second in a third revival of Les Miz, but I am better than YOU" but out here it's been generally more of a "wow, that's kind of neat". It's hard not to find that kind of attractive. I know I need a break when all I can see is The Stare and the Shoulder Shrug in others.
Anyway, I'll be back in town tomorrow (Wednesday) morning just in time for the seventh anniversary of The Will Clark Show feat. P*rno Bingo which will feature David Drake as his newest creation, Tawny Heatherton along with stripper Jay Roth with a special appearance by singer Vicky Modica (courtesy of Rock N Rawhide) - and possibly a brief moment with our friend Kylie Edmond who was at the Grammys this week (now there's a box of chocolates being delivered just in time for Valentines Day.. except that in this case I know just how delicious each and every chocolate is - take that Forest Gump). The night will benefit our friends at the Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project.
Speaking of Kylie, on Saturday night she'll be performing and I'll be emceeing Folsom Street East's Fetish for Fashion show to benefit Housing Works at the Center at 208 W. 13th Street. Lots of incredible designers are bringing their work to be shown, sold and auctioned off including the king of New York leatherworks, Mr. David Samuel Menckes - who made me the most awesome pair of assless chaps in 1997 (and redone in the mid 2000s because my legs had muscled up since then - just sayin) which I will probably be wearing (but you know, with some sort of pants thing underneath because it is after all the Center and not Folsom East which is the last time I wore them (good God, they might still have whipped cream on them from the pie eating contest last June.. OK no just kidding, I had some hot young guy clean that up months ago! <wink>) :) And speaking of hot guys, there'll be plenty on hand modeling all the incredible leather fashions. Bring a bib. :)
And speaking of Folsom East, I've been hired to emcee the event again along with current Mr. Fire Island Leather and emerging drag QUEEN of New York, Dallas Dubois. More on this in the upcoming months (but I'm very excited to be working with her. She. Is. Awesome. :) )
Finally, thanks to those of you who came out for this past Sunday's Leather Pride Night event at the Eagle. Through sales and raffle tix, we raised over $1200 for the event which will take place on Saturday June 16th at XL. More on this too in the coming months.
Leather Pride Night kicks off leather pride weekend here in New York, and the next day, Sunday June 17th, is the annual Folsom East Fair which will take place on W. 28th Street (and folks, last year we were the hit of the High Line - you know, I can snark on New York tourists quite a bit but to the credit of folks from whereever, people were totes OK with photographing a street full of kinky men and women - honestly Folsom East is probably the most interesting, least sanitized event happening in New York City these days - come be a part of it... because don't you want to end up on the Facebook page of a tourist from some far flung state or country? I do!) :)
That's it for today, have a great Valentines Day no matter if you're single or coupled up (or even 'troupled' up - that's the new word for a threesome relationship) because you know, there's always a need to spread the love you have with those around you. Remember, in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make... make sure you get to take a ton. :)
My biggest wish for each of us is that we have an incredible year ahead of us, find everything we desire and come back here a year from now with that kind of goosebumpy adrenalized rush topped off with a goofy crazed sweaty smile saying "THAT WAS ONE HELL OF A YEAR! WHAT A RIDE!!"
I wish us all love, I wish all employment, I wish us all the creative fullfillment of our dreams, I wish for us the best sex of our lives and I wish for me and all of you that we share it together whether it be here, Facebook, at Bingo or wheverever the four winds take us over the next 12 months.
This year I'm Dancing at the end of the World .. but Mayan calendar schmayan calendar - it's only the end of the world ...of pain, and here's the a new world of unlimited joy!
Good morning all - today I'm at home repainting my second bedroom, making homemade soup and well, as always blogging. The music is pumped up and I'm already making tremendous progress, but wanted to stop for a moment to post this video from the Gay/Lesbian Anti Violence Project.
Although most of us have endured anti-gay slurs (although how can calling me a "cocksucker" be a slam? especially when it's yelled out a car window by a carful of drunk straight guys as they're speeding by - it's hard to take that seriously) but thankfully most of us will never know the horror of being attacked like Dave Pittock describes in the video below.
I know I know.. you read this blog for the hunk o the day or for Bingo pics and I hit you all up for causes all the time, but I hope that if you have a couple dollars that you need to burn off anyway before the end of year (you know, if you need to make one last charitible donation for tax reasons) or if you just know how important of a cause this is, that you will consider clicking here and donation to AVP today. The work that AVP does is vital to the health - both physical and mental - of our community.
If you're not able to help financially now, hopefully you'll consider passing this post on to your friends - because not only does AVP depend on your financial support, but they depend on all of us to let our entire network of LGBTQ friends know that should the need arise (God forbid) there will be help (and all of us should carry AVP's emergency hotline number in our wallets or as a saved numbe on our cell phone just in case).
Meanwhile, AVP will be joining us for Bingo on January 18th and if you're in New York City then, I hope you'll join us for a night to raise a bunch o bucks for them. :)
