OK so I'm not quite sure how long it'll take to get pictures up as I'm now on a Mac and although I've uploaded pictures from last night's spectacular event, my usual routine of re-sizing them and applying the bingo logo has hit a little skidmark given that I'm not entirely sure where anything is quite yet. But I think I might be able to get them up by tomorrow. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, I thought I'd jot down a little bit about what went down last night at the event.. Well, it was pretty fabulous.
Singer Dudley Saunders showed up from LA to tell us some stories of our mutual leather community days here in NYC back 12 years ago or so (you know, when we had an actual leather bar and enough interested parties to keep it going.. grumble grumble) and he gave us a couple good songs to mellow out with; everyone agreeing: this guy's got a pretty fabulous voice. Do I know talent? Of course I do.
Then there's Matthew Rush who came up early for his big night at Splash on Friday night. We may not get as raunchy as we were able to at Secrets a few weeks back but it is after all, Splash. Anyway, Matthew joined us to raise some funds for the Bronx based theatre company called BAAD (aka Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance) as well as getting us to our Big Fundraising Goal of 100k.
Now, look, when I started this event out in Feb 2005 my big goal was simply keeping the thing going and it never dawned on me to even make a goal like this much less have any confidence that I'd be able to reach it. But when, in January 2008 I got curious as to how much we'd raised so far and I added things up, I realized that we were about at 50k and then, you know, things got interesting and it sort of formed in the back of my head that "someday at some point" we 'might' be able to double that. I didn't dream that it would be a little less than two years later. Certainly the move to Pieces has helped - a larger space means more people, which means more of an opportunity to raise more funds. Simple math.
So it was with no small amount of cheer that we hit the 75k mark late last year and careened into the general vacinity of this goal over the summer. I hoped that maybe we could get there by our fifth year anniversary in February 2010.... but hey, people were generous and we got there much sooner and last night we were only $525 away from the Big Goal.
It wasn't until the final round of Bingo card sales had been tabulated that we got the word that we had reached it and exceeded it by $4. Now only $99,996 to go til the next goal. (will I even still be doing this event in the time it will take to raise another hundred grand??)
In any event, some folks think it's ego-centric to promote how much we raise but even as sensitive as I am (and I am) even I look at those people like they're out of their minds. Because you know what? I'm proud of the work that I've done and I'm also proud of the work that our stars have done and I'm really proud of the work in the community that each of our beneficiaries have done (from AIDS organizations to sports groups to theatre companies to helping a deceased friend's estate pay for medical bills) and mostly, I'm proud of the folks who come to the event and spend their hard-earned (and easily lost if last years stock market plunge taught us anything, it's that investing is about as secure as rolling the dice in Vegas) cash to help others. Yeah, I made that 100k happen, but so did you. And not only have we had a great time doing it, but no one can ever take it away from us either. That's pretty damn cool.
So late last night after we'd taken the pictures and recovered from the scary espresso-vodka shot (brrr!), said goodnight to our stars and patted our beneficiaries on the butts as they carried their cash away to put it to good use to benefit a new production or help a playwright finish that brilliant play, I had a little moment on the street with one of our regulars.
It wasn't really anything that you could recreate in a book or in a song or in a movie. It wouldn't mean much to probably anyone else except for me. But it was a quiet moment just walking up the street with a friend, one of several people who comes to Bingo regularly, and there was just this thing that held there in the air "ya done good" he said or maybe didnt even say but I knew it. I certainly felt it. And you know, some days, that's more than most people can say.
Back a few years ago while I was in college, I worked for a summer camp in Texas. It literally changed my life in so many ways but what I want to bring from it today is one thing that I learned my last summer, when I had been promoted to being a director of one of the camps. My friend Tina, who was sort of pixieish and always had a smile on her lips, told me that when you have a WIN you just 'bask bask bask' (you have to imagine a Texas drawl with that) because probably sooner rather than later a problem will come up so best to bask when you can. She'd do this with her face to the sky, arms spread out with palms face up, swaying her body back and forth. It was meant to be funny and it was. It certainly 20 years later still gives me a chuckle. So I'm basking. :)
On a completely superficial note, I can't wait to show you all the pictures of Matthew Rush wrapped in the red velvet cover that we used to cover the Bingo tables (yes, there's a story) or the picture of NearlyNakedMatthew and NearlyNakedDudley as they shared a chair during one of our rounds. And of course I can't wait to tell you about Los Nutcrackers, the next show at BAAD as well as the other cool shows (Coco Peru, Joan Rivers, The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever, a Wonder Woman cabaret and Love Child) that we're promoting at Bingo and on this Blog at the moment. But I think that'll happen tomorrow so hang tight and I'll see you back here then.
Til then, I'm going to enjoy a little basking. Bask bask bask.
It was one of those fantastic nights, the kind that can't almost can't be described in pictures... but AB tried.
What was my favorite moment? Sniffing Colin Steele's jockstrap to verify that he had indeed worn it for the past week (yes.. whoa!)? by the way it ultimately auctioned off for $250!
What about the cool Raging Stallion videos that we gave away (copies of Colin's Fist My Butt) or the new gay hockey league duffle bags we introduced?
Or how about my best friend Matt who traveled all the way from San Francisco for a visit bringing Ghiradelli chocolates of
the holiday variety that we here on the east coast can't get?
Tickets to The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever and Love Child? Fantastic!
Or the toast to our friend Darrio on his birthday? Or that my boyfriend stopped by on his way home from work to pack for a week long business trip and ran into three of his friends at our little event?
No, most important to me was the moment of silence we observed for recent victim Steven Lopez Mercado whose senseless death Puerto Rico only underscores the need for AVP to begin with. It scares the crap out of me that gay bashings are on the rise - and in New York City of all places. But this latest crime to have happen? Unthinkable. Barbaric. Some are calling it the most vicious bashing in history. Who could have ever thought that someone could outdo Matthew Shepard's torture?
But, as if restoring my own faith in humanity, at the end of the night, as people were tired and drunk, people ponied up nearly a hundred dollars more (thanks to Terrance for his $50 donation that started it) so that we could make it an even $1000 night for AVP. Yeah, all that is what I'll take away from last night. And more.
Thanks to all of our guests and guest stars for making it an incredible evening! All the pictures are posted herePosted at 01:39 PM in AVP, Colin Steele, Commentary, Porno Bingo, Queer Business, Queer Music, San Francisco | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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