Ok so full disclosure here - I am not a cook. I love making soup from scratch, that's fun. Making lasagna? Not fun. Making a Thanksgiving dinner? I can't even conceive of it... but San Francisco cooking chef Mary Risley (of the Tante Marie Cooking School) shows just how easy it is to make this meal - AND gives us all a little perspective on the whole thing in the first place. It's just a fucking turkey after all and with enough Pino, no one will care.
As for me, I'm spending tonight at the movies, tomorrow night at dinner with my best friend and then Friday and Saturday with my "acquired" family in Connecticut. No bingo this week but I'll see you all next Thursday night November 29th at our annual "Night of a Thousand Santas" featuring XXX superstar Jake Deckard. More on this after the holiday weekend.
For now, enjoy Mary (because she seems like she'd be a lot of fun to hang out with!) :)
This past weekend no matter which coast you were on, you were possibly schelepping through a crowd of people fighting to get that one item that's been eluding you.
If you were in San Francisco, you were at
Folsom Street Fair hunting for hot porn and leather items to break in that night with the other hot leathermen that you had met that day... and if you were in New York, you were at the Broadway Cares Flea Market skulking around Shubert Alley looking for those CARRIE: THE MUSICAL salt and pepper shakers that would send you into a flurry of delight. Both events give gay men hard-ons. But whether you were working a backpack full of butt plugs or working a backpack full of Playbills, it's nice to know that the proceeds from both events went to great causes. :)
Pictured - this is me after a brunch with friends where we celebrated my mom's life. Truth: I was walking with a friend and feeling really bummed out. But a friend saw me and called out my name and I immediately turned and went into "HI! FRIENDLY! NOTHING WRONG HERE!" mode. LOL I scare me sometimes. :) (Thanks to Dale for posting the pic on Facebook). (and by the way, the package I'm carrying is a dozen yellow roses given to me by a very special friend who attended the brunch).
Oh cripes this has got to be one of the most over the top things I've seen in quite awhile (and given the life that I lead, that's saying something!).. but I love it mainly because it is SO over the top ridiculously gay and sexual that it's at once laughable AND boner inducing.
Yes, it's the Andrew Christian video that's burned up teh internets, racking up nearly 100,000 views in
just 24 hours. Sure, they were all over Twitter this afternoon blaring about the video which surely pulled in lookie loos (uhm like me) but really who can resist young hot wet gay men spraying each other with long hoses and soaping up the good parts (of the CAR! LOL).
Oh underwear maker, why do you make us carless New Yorkers wish we still own automobiles (do you think we could get a bunch of these guys to soap up a zipcar? LOL)
and you know, using Pepper MaShay's "Let's Get Soaking Wet" does my heart good - because I used that as the Bad Boys Pool Party ("It's Reigning Men, Let's Get Wet") as our slogan for years - and the party exploded the year I booked Pepper to actually sing it. Come to think of it, there were plenty of red hot wet gay boys at that party too.
Hey, if you don't have a car, maybe the boys will just wash YOU. Later, rinse, repeat and so forth.
BTW there is an unrated version (I'm scared to ask how much dirtier/sexier it could get outside of a Falcon shoot) but it's been taken down and will return soon......
The east coasters reading this might not know him, but San Franciscans love Tom Orr and his ability to write "dirty little showtunes". He's done porn, he's done cabaret, he's done leather and he's done Lance Navarro.. no wait.. yes, actually that's true. :)
Tom is one of those incredibly talented guys that I know so many of around the country and I'm hoping that 2012 is Tom's year to break out- because the world could use some dirty little showtunes in the coming months what with the election coming up that portends to be pretty dirty in it's own right. Shudder.
Anyway, here's Tom and check out his website and give him a shout!
What you do in the world work-wise: San Francisco's Original Musical Comedy Cabaret Porn Star™ and The Best Lyricist You've Never Heard Of.™
Upcoming Gig: I FEEL A THONG COMING ON! and HOT GREEKS! The first is an encore production of my big comeback solo show, "I Feel A Thong Coming On!", at New Conservatory Theatre Center, where I went on to do TOM ORR IN A CRASS ACT! and the return of my DIRTY LITTLE SHOWTUNES!, both of which earned me Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle nominations for Best Actor in a Musical. That will be at the Eureka Theatre in March. Then I go right into HOT GREEKS! with the Thrillpeddlers, who did Pearls Over Shanghai in the NY Fringe Festival and Vice Palace at the 2011 HOWL Festival and Lincoln Center. It's part of The Cockettes Renaissance of revivals here in SF: hilarious epic queer camp drag sex musicals. Hot Greeks! is the story of Lysistrata set in Ancient Greece and a 1930s varsity college musical, where the cheerleaders withhold sex from their jock boyfriends before the Big Game. I play Pendulum Pulaski, the Quarterback. He's the biggest member of the team, so to speak. Damn typecasting. But after 20+ years since high school, I get to be Captain of the Football Team, save the day and get the "girl"!
2012 Wish: To finally make my NYC debut while there are still cabaret venues to do it . I lived in NYC for 3 years and was always to scared to produce DLST! or one of my solo shows. Now I'm in the best shape I've ever been in and, thanks to my bf Lance Navarro, getting 15 years of videos up on YouTube. I'm finally ready.
Something that went horribly wrong in 2011 that you will fix in 2012: I work at Mr. S Leather in, ahem, Shipping & Receiving ... with a little modeling on the side (I'm the spokeschlong for OxBalls CockSlings and Hot Rod 5000). In March I snapped my tendon when I whacked my hand on a ladder and was out on leave while it healed. I couldn't do anything with my right hand for 4 months. Let's just say now I'm ambidextrous, my left forearm is huge and I'm much more cautious at work.
Where do you want to be able to say looking back on 2012 on Jan 1st 2013?: That this was the year I finally got my act together and took it on the road.
Best New Year's Eve Ever: / Worst New Year's Eve Ever:
They're the same: it was New Year's Eve and I was the headliner up in Guerneville at the Russian River Resort in the torrential rain. The river was about to flood so only the locals were there, and they were drinking calmly as we watched the water in the pool rise to be level with the ground and then overflow while I was freaking out thinking we had to evacuate any minute. We did the show anyway and it was a huge hit, then celebrated the new year with a dreamily perfect New Year's kiss from my boyfriend at the time. We went to bed with our bags packed and ready. Sure enough at 6am there was a bang at the door saying get out! We drove through a foot of water for a mile and got out of town just as they shut down the highway for days. We laughed and sang along to Forbidden Broadway all the way home.
What would a New Year's round up be without one of my most favoritist gay porn stars chiming in. Lance is not only a big hottie but also a big sweet bundle of Friend. He makes staying associated with the industry worthwhile - sexy, honest, loyal and fun, Lance is a rarity in the biz and he and I always have a good time together.
This year Lance joined us for the sold out Bad Boys on the Hudson and as the trip landed smack dab in the middle of a summer full o trouble, he was a calming inflence and a guiding hand.
Speaking of which, Lance is also into some pretty wild stuff and you owe it to yourself to get to know this man that is just sex on a stick. :)
What you do in the world work-wise: I work in the sex/pleasure/therapy industry as an escort as well as a C.M.T. I also work as a porn model and have worked for a variety of companies. Check out my site for videography.
Upcoming Gig: Shooting a scene for Kink.com at the end of January for ButtMachineBoys.
2012 Wish: My wish for 2012 is to travel more and love more. This last year has been an amazing one, I have made quite a few new and really good friends and have really grown in my relationship with my bf Tom. I have also began dating another really terrific guy for the last 6 months, which is going very well. I am looking forward to growing my relationships in the upcoming year and meeting lots of new people as I travel around the country and hopefully the world. I got the opportunity to travel to some of my favorite places as well as some new ones this past year, including my first trip to Hawaii and Des Moines, IA to entertain for the Mr. Iowa Leather Contest (such an honor). I also made it down to LA and Palm Springs a few times as well as back East to NYC and VA 3 times. I hope to end up in Europe sometime this year and also maybe a road trip to Seattle and Portland.
Something that went horribly wrong in 2011 that you will fix in 2012: Nothing major happened last year. I would say the strangest thing that happened was a client that I spent 3 days with down in LA and was supposed to travel to Europe with the following week turned out to be a con-artist. He didn't con me out of anything, but I confronted him before the European trip. After doing my research I found out that he had only been out of jail for 2 months when I met him and within a month he was back in jail again. I had my suspicions but it all seemed so good (shopping, entertainment, fine dining) that I wanted to believe he was honest, but the words of my mother were in the back of my head "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is". I am going to learn in 2012 to be an optimist but also to trust my instincts.
Where do you want to be able to say looking back on 2012 on Jan 1st 2013?: Looking back on 2012 I want to be able to say that my life, time and work had meaning and made a difference. I want to use my time more productively, volunteer a few days a week, keep a steady work-out regimen and stay busy with work.
Best New Years: This upcoming one. (I'm just manifesting it to be the best)
Worst New Years: Times Square NYC. If you have done it, you understand!
Masterbeat's circuit parties are legendary and this year in honor of the end of the world on December 21st, 2012, they've put together a funky video that, not without tongue placed firmly in cheek (I hope!) suggests that the only way to deal with the oncoming apocalypse is to simply dance all night. Actually I can think of worse ways to go out - sitting on the couch by yourself in your underwear wishing you'd done something a little more interesting with your last minutes comes immediately to mind.
Anyway, enjoy this cheeky video produced by the Masterbeat people.. you can check out the Masterbeat site by clicking here and even if teh cirkut partay isn't your thing, this will definitely get your blood pumping and your fingers dialing - for a one way ticket to the Mayan temple next December (I know that it's on my wish list).
Around 2002 I started hearing Jim Brickman's "Simple Things" in various places - on the radio, at a day job, in a store, etc and I'd try to keep humming it as long as I could so that, when I'd go into a music store, which I did at various points throughout a tour I was late in the year, I'd try to get some help identifying the song. No one knew what it was. When I mentioned something about "Simple Things" a guy at a record store harumphed and said "It sounds like some Republican song"
It wasn't until I was in an airport bathroom that I heard it in it's entirety. I spent about three minutes lingering trying to capture as many lyrics as possible in my head before rushing out to the lounge to write them down as quickly as I could. Now I suppose I could record the song on my phone and play it back for friends, technology has come a long way in 9 years. I guess I should be lucky that airport security didn't take me away for loitering in the men's room!
It wasn't until I put this experience out to the 1,000 fans that subscribed to my weekly Journal (you know, back before blogs and Facebook made mass emailing, by and large, a thing of the past) that I got resolution. It turned out that not only did a friend know the song, but was one of the promoters for the artists album. A package in the mail arrived subsequently - a half dozen Jim Brickman CDs with the CD with "Simple Things" on it on top.
The song speaks about enjoying the simple things in life and, at the time, going through one of the many difficult times I've had, it was a comfort and a friend. I traveled the country alone - first on tour for four months and then back to LA to wrap up my life there and then the many months it took me to get settled here in New York in 2003/2004.
It was in this time that I took a friend to a Jim Brickman concert in LA. Brickman, if you don't know, has been hailed "America's Romantic Piano Sensation" and plays the most beautifully romantic music ... and there I was hanging out with my friend Jodie having all sorts of thoughts and feelings about being single at a romantic concert. Still, hearing "Simple Things" performed live was a joy and lifted my spirits up.
Years later, another friend took me to his concert at Birdland here in New York and, at one point I got to meet and take a picture with him. I was totally embarassed as you might be able to tell in the picture above because when I put my arm around him, for some reason, it landed on his ass. I don't know why my hand went there. But it did. I think Jim Brickman is the only star whom I've ever felt up in quite this way.
A year or two later, another friend took me to the next Brickman concert, also at Birdland. He had arranged for me to meet him backstage and it was, as you can imagine, awkward. For some reason I thought it funny to bring up the fact that I had essentially grabbed his ass last time we'd met. Brickman just smiled and mumbled something about obviously not having minded. This of course just made me feel more awkward. (Doesn't this just make you want to rush out and buy us both concert tickets? LOL)
I bring this all up today because I'm doing some housework and I have my iTunes on. I haven't heard "Simple Things" in years and had almost forgotten about it.. when the tune came up I sort of froze. It was suddenly 2003 and my New York adventure was ahead of me, the magic of the music gave energy to my feet and I whirled around the apartment in a joyous dance.
I was struck momentarily that I'd probably never find a partner who thinks this is a good song (I mean, it is pretty sappy) nor would I find someone to dance with me in the kitchen (because, you know, the gays don't dance except on the dance floor) and I found that a little bit of a bummer.
But you know, we don't all have to be partnered up for us to have a good life. I enjoy the things that I get to do because I'm single - like dancing in the kitchen - but there is definitely something a little depressing about not having anyone to turn to and say "remember when we danced in the kitchen?" ... but rather than see these in the negative as I so often have in my long legged life, I'm making a choice to start counting my blessings - the weekly show, my great apartment, living in New York, my health (and I go to a great gym that inspires me to keep on being healthy), my friends both here in town and in far off places and so much more. Sure they're pretty simple things, but they matter. To me, anyway.
The other day at around 5pm I was walking east on 23rd Street and as I crossed, I think Park Ave, and looked uptown. The sunset had colored the clouds pink and they dappled across the fading blue sky. The Chrysler Building's exterior neon lights had been turned on and for a moment, I stood in the crosswalk, fixated on the beauty that is the city I live in.
I suppose the simple things don't add up to much in this glossy world filled with celebrity scandals and crooked politicians, and simple things won't get a cover on a magazine or draw a sold out crowd at an auditorium. They're also not bitchy or catty, they're not cynicl or jaded. and they're not mean.
I suppose that appreciating the sunset and dancing in the kitchen and sitting in my PJs doing a graphic design project (like I did yesterday) aren't much to speak about in this world of ours and finding someone else that appreciates these things as much as I do (and who doesn't find them 'silly') is probably impossible.
But that's OK. It's important to me that I have my head on straight and my priorities right. It won't get me laid, but I suppose that's OK too. :)
Anyway, take a listen to the song - it's taken from one of Jim Brickman's live performances. I prefer the album version but I couldn't find a video for that (only homemade ones with pictures of kids and puppies and things.. posting those made me feel a little invasive). So, enjoy your Sunday and I'll see you later.
Jim Brickman plays the Best Buy Theatre here in New York on February 12th, 2012 - just in time for Valentine's Day - and if you want to spend an evening with a loved one enjoying this terrific concert, click here for tickets. (Gosh, I sound like I work for him, I don't, honest! LOL)
After all the intensity of today's blogs, here's a pic of Trenton Ducati, a hot 33 year old muscle stud to ease your eyes (although I think Zachary Quinto is pretty easy on the eyes. Yum).
He's just been signed by TitanMen as an exclusive. He's from Houston, TX and grew up doing things like bull riding, riding motorcycles (hence the Ducati moniker) and weight lifting (and at 6 foot 1, 220, clearly he's been doing something right).
And well, in his debut out this December, the big guy gets to be on the bottom end of things (that's where all the fun is for those of you who aren't in the know).
Hottie Jason Michaels is Falcon's newest Exclusive and you know, he's super sexy so I thought I run a pic of him courtesy of their PR dept... this is what Jason has to say about his new career in adult entertainment:
"Porn to me is not only a fantasy but a necessity, I need porn, and to actually have the opportunity to take part in it is just purely amazing! Not only am I excited about coming back, but also about having the opportunity to be one of Falcon/Raging Stallion's exclusive models. This is a major honor, and a dream come true." Michaels adds, "never in my wildest dreams would I have thought that the company which produced the pornos I've jacked off to numerous times (and I mean numerous) would provide me this amazing opportunity. I look forward to having some hot fun with the other sexy stars and meeting some awesome people along the way! I hope you guys enjoy the movies as much as I enjoy making them!! Rawwwwwwr!!"
If you find yourself in San Fran on November 7th, consider checking out the Richmond/Ermet AIDS Foundation's special presention of a one night only benefit cabaret featuring the touring cast of HAIR (although songs from HAIR will not be performed... weird, huh?), with comic/writer Bruce Vilanch, Jai Rodriquez and Jeanie Tracy. That's at Marine's Memorial theatre 609 Sutter Street at 7:30 and you can grab tickets for this special event by clicking here!
Meanwhile, if you're in San Francisco and you really need to hear the songs from HAIR, the national tour plays at the Golden Gate Theatre October 25th - November 20th.
