Happy Halloween to everyone! Here are some pics from the Oaklawn Halloween Block Party. It was so much fun. Even Lance Bass showed up at Station 4 nightclub for Sunday night promoting his new book ‘Out of Sync’. There were thousands out in the streets in between Throckmorton and Oaklawn on Cedar Springs for the block party. Maybe the new Dallas mayor wil take notice and not be so harsh on the gayborhood.
And we thought Republican jerks took over the country without harming San Francisco. It is so sad that San Francisco did not have its Annual Halloween street party and that the Castro gay area is being extinguished of gays. Of course the housing is becoming too expensive for younger gays and the “crime is increasing” are some of the excuses they are using but what about other big cities like Dallas and West Hollywood, CA. You can also find a kick butt street party in Houston of all places.
The city of San Francisco can shove the HomeforHalloween.com site up your butts. It is sickening you even have that website as if your bragging that all the clubs are closed and there is absolutely NOTHING to do in the Castro on one of the biggest party nights of the year. It is also too bad that Chris Crocker or Matthew Lush (well he has one issue = being a Vegan and a gay but no issues besides his own selfish agenda) don’t entertain real issues like this. Instead they talk about stupid things all day long and stare into a web camera queening around making our entire community feel completely dumb and embarrassed. We need to stand up to these mayors and city officials who are stopping gay activities in NYC, San Francisco, and every other city these jerks control.
I say don’t spend any money in the Castro or NYC until they get things changed. Keep your money in cities where they are happy to have the queers and appreciate our fabulous companionship. Money talks and creates change — you are what you eat and you are what you buy!
Update: (From PlanetOut.com)
On Wednesday night, bars and restaurants closed early, public transportation halted nighttime service to the area and sidewalk barricades were set up to discourage pedestrians from spilling into the road. The landmark Castro Theatre stood with its lights shut off, guarded by barricades and nine police officers.
Tampa has got it going on when it comes to hotties. We made our way to the West Coast of Florida this weekend and had a great time. We started out in Orlando at Pulse and watched a fabulous charity drag show then went to Mannequins Disco located in Pleasure Island in Disney for some dessert. Friday night we made it to this two story club called Chamber’s which is normally Country & Western upstairs but was hip hop this night. After a full day of being completely hung over we finally worked up the energy to make it out to see Lydia Prim at the G-Bar in the Ybor city of Tampa. I found the best hotel to stay at if you visit Tampa is the Ybor City (East Downtown Tampa) Hampton Inn because it is next door to the G Bar and just blocks away from the other clubs and bars. G Bar had some hot twinkish go-go dancers and some great teriyaki chicken that the lesbians were serving inside. We also saw a hot mannequin (not to be confused with the mannequin from Thursday night). I liked the fact they had a hot female dancer too that spiced things up some.
Gay Bay Tampa Clubbin’
Friday – Chambers (1701 N. Franklin Street, Tampa) – Just a few blocks from G Bar and lots of room to dance upstairs. This night is 18 and up and was packed with a hot crowd.
Saturday – G Bar (1401 E. 7th Avenue, YBOR City Tampa Bay) features VJ Greg Anderson with reasonable cover charge and is 18 and up. This is the gay boy night at G Bar the other nights are more the “g spot” girl nights.
Tampa has had problems in the past with a pride being canceled by the local government. Their next pride event is scheduled as a Winter Pride Tampa Bay on February 23, 2008. Tampa definitely has a better gay scene than we ever expected and you can drink until around 3am at the bars.
Tis’ the Haunted Halloween season which starts off Christmas shopping which starts off preparation for the New Years Parties. There are haunted houses, street parties, and lots of wild things to do…
Ok, there are hundreds more parties around the Halloween time but we only touched on a few. Sites like CircuitTicket.com are not even talking about Halloween but already got the big toast for 2008 in mind. So that says there will not be big circuit parties planned. Stay away from the scary monsters.
I thought we would take a trip to Philly soon and see where the boys are hanging out. I searched for gay clubs and bars and talked to some friends who lived there. Let me know if there is anything that has changed. I want to make sure I am headed to the right places to get my drink on.
Philly college night seems to be a popular night out at Woody’s (between Walnut and Locust on 13th St.). I remember a Woody’s in Toronto and a Woody’s from Queer as Folk so you can’t go wrong with a place with this name. The website even makes it more appealing with some shirtless boys for the 18 and up night. I read on a blog that they play good house type music instead of just the rap junk they try to put on all of us gays. We appreciate our diva house music dammit! The party ends here at 2am.
Thursdays did not seem to bring up much excitement but maybe you need to stay in to prepare for the very popular Shampoo night out. A straight club turns gay on “Shaft” Friday nights in Philadelphia. Many people I meet out and about have tried to get me to come down on a Friday night to check out Shampoo (415 N. 8th Street). Sounds Fun I think we will head that way before it gets too cold!
Saturday Nights look like they are best at Pure Nightclub. Not to be confused with the Pure we all know in Las Vegas where Mariah “came back” and even Justin Timberlake performed recently at the MTV VMA’s. It has a few things in common with the Pure in Vegas. One thing is it is open all night long which is fabulous. This club in Philly stays open until 8am on Saturdays and have special dj guests including Tony Moran who is one of the super-star circuit spinners. This Pure looks fun with hot boys dancing and a nice tease of the music judging from their website. Hopefully you do not have the same silly dress code as the one in Vegas. Who likes dress codes? I love wearing my flip-flops out some nights and some nights dressing in full glamour.
Another funny thing about the Pure nightclub is where it is located. It is located on 1221 Saint James Street. Is that not the coolest address for a club? I wonder if the party monster himself James St. James has been there. You can take a virtual tour of their club via video (if it works in your browser) to see more.
I feel everyone should support a city such as Philadelphia that is so big on gay rights and even advertises to the gay community. NYC on the other hand has closed down most of its good clubs and barely supported the gay community lately including the gay pride festival. Spend your money in cities that support us!
Some places to research before planning a trip to Philly would be edgephiladelphia.com for news and events and the local clubs websites for the party info. If you know some other good places our blog demographics would be interested in then let us know by posting comments below.
Who is the hottie on the Red Magazine Cover for this month? He certainly gives Matthew Lush (Gay God) a run for his money. The style is all about hoodies and well has been for a few years. You see the str8 boys wearing hoodies, Hurley hats, DGX clothes, and anything that makes them look more emolicious. But damn that is the sexiest & cutest smile ever! …These people know how to make us gay boys pick up a magazine.
Why not put up a gay themed video? We still do not know how to work the video function on this site properly. There are many fans of Chris Crocker and Gay God that we would like to post even their videos sometimes. Look forward to more videos being posted on this blog of the many celebs or sights from the club scene. Here is a new video “ad” from the good folks at Youtube and Google.
Just in time for the Halloween season I thought we would hit up on the Party Monster days. Otherwise known as ‘Party Monster and the Club Kids age’.
Just so you know where we’re coming from here, there have been books written and film made about a real group of people known as The “Club Kids”. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s groups of young people went clubbing – nothing remarkable about that. But somehow they got themselves known, well known, famous and then infamous simply for being guys and gals who went partying – it was a social group that, up until then, had not been seen. There was something in the music and the culture of the time that drew this glamorous, outrageous way of dressing out of young people and the Club Kids went all out to get themselves known for being known.
We might call them ‘IT’ girls now but back then they were simply Party Monsters. To be one of the set you had to be young, usually under 25, you would have to have a sense of self styling and would have to be prepared to be outrageous. They’d get up to all kinds of antics in their efforts to get themselves noticed, putting on false airs and graces, false personas and wild costumes. All of these folk were very gifted at self promotion, making something out of yourself, or making something out of nothing you might say, and they were also good at organising the wild parties they soon became associated with. Their lifestyle was fast and furious and often self destructive, with drugs and alcohol addiction going hand in hand with late nights, the wild parties, the outrageous costumes and the antics. But, at a time when the New York (and elsewhere) scene was recovering from the seventies and calming a little, these guys stood out and soon became notorious.
And once they started to get well known the self perpetuation started: they were known simply for being known, they got invited to clubs so that the public would come and gawp at them and that night the club sold out. They were invited onto TV shows to talk about their way of life and ratings went up; they were paid a fortune just to turn up and be at a night spot, a bar, a club. It was a good job if you could get it! They did actually do some work though, they organised club nights, party nights and events at the Limelight club but also at a McDonalds restaurant.
But this kind of fast living and wild partying only leads to one thing; well, it can’t last forever. The ‘king’ of the Party Monsters of New York was a guy called Michael Alig. He rose to fame as one of the Party Monster set, started his own magazine and record label but then the hedonistic lifestyle took over and he spiralled down through drug addiction and finally ended up killing his live in dope dealer and going to gaol.
A movie of his story, and the other party animals around him, was released in 2003 to mixed reviews. Titled “Party Monster” it stars Macaulay Culkin playing the bisexual, self promoting drug addict Michael Alig. The movie also features a performance by Seth Green as James St James and a cameo from Marilyn Manson. It is based on the book “Disco Bloodbath” by James St. James who was another of the original party monsters. The co-adapter/directors of the movie (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato) have also made a documentary with the same title so if you’re interested to buy the DVD make sure you are getting the version you want.
I can’t promise that watching the movie will help you understand why the “Club Kids” became so famous so quickly but it should go some way to explain the history. Maybe it’s just because they were young, wild and outrageous… Whatever the reason there is a lesson to be learned and a moral too and maybe that’s the appeal of the story: live fast, die young.